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REPRINTED FROM HARVARD STUDIES ἽΝ 
CLASSICAL, PHILOLOGY, VOL. II 


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(Boston: GINN ἃ CoMPANY. 1891.] 


THE ‘STAGE’ IN ARISTOPHANES. /\ 


By JOHN WILLIAMS WHITE. 


HAT famous architect and doubtless honest man, Vitruvius 
Pollio, says in his celebrated treatise On Architecture that the 
stage in a Greek theatre should be not less than ten nor more than 
twelve feet high. He says also that the actors performed on the 
stage, the chorus in the orchestra. Pollux repeats the last statement.! 
Scholars have universally believed in the existence of a stage in 
the Greek theatre and in the consequent separation of actors and 
chorus by a difference of level, until within the last ten years. But 
with the excavation of the theatres at Epidaurus, Assos, Oropus, and 
elsewhere, in quick succession within the last decade, and the final 
excavation of the Theatre of Dionysus at Athens in 1886, the un- 
questioned belief of centuries has been rudely called in question. 
Many a student of the Greek drama must have felt the inherent 
difficulties arising from the supposition of a stage. To ‘set’ a play 
like the Birds or Lysistrata of Aristophanes on a stage of amy height 
is difficult and awkward. The stairway that is needed in order 
to effect connexion between the orchestra on the lower level and 
the stage above? is fatally destructive of that perfect ease of action 
which is instinctively felt to be everywhere characteristic of the 
comedies of the great playwright. The natural solution of the diffi- 
culty, the bold assumption that actors and chorus stood on a level 
and played their closely interwoven parts on the common floor of 
the orchestra, seems not even to have been conceived before the 


1 Vitruv. V. 7. 2: ita tribus centris hac descriptione ampliorem habent orches- 
tram Graeci et scaenam recessiorem minoreque latitudine pulpitum, quod λογεῖον 
appellant, ideo quod eo tragici et comici actores in scaena peragunt, reliqui autem 
artifices suas per orchestram praestant actiones; itaque ex eo scaenici et thymelici 
graece separatim nominantur. eius logei altitudo non minus debet esse pedum X, 
non plus duodecim. Poll. IV. 123: καὶ σκηνὴ μὲν ὑκοκριτῶν ἴδιον, ἡ δὲ ὀρχήστρα 
τοῦ χοροῦ, ἐν ἣ καὶ 7 θυμέλη, εἴτε βῆμά τι οὖσα εἴτε βωμός. 

2 Cf. Poll. IV. 127: εἰσελθόντες δὲ κατὰ τὴν ὀρχήστραν ἐπὶ τὴν σκηνὴν ἀναβαί- 
νουσι διὰ κλιμάκων : τῆς δὲ κλίμακος οἱ βαθμοὶ κλιμακτῆρες καλοῦνται. 


159 


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Z£LiCCO 


160 Sohn Williams White. 


last decade. Such an assumption would have opposed a tradition 
which antedates the Christian era. 

The difficulty presented by the height of the Vitruvian stage has 
been dealt with variously. A second stage has been built up in front 
of it, for the use of the chorus, and its advocates have confidently 
believed that its existence could be proved on ancient authority.’ 
Again the suggestion has been made that the stage on which the 
plays of the four great dramatists were acted may not have been so 
high as the rule of Vitruvius demands. His stage of ten or twelve 
feet has been reduced to one of six or seven feet or even less.? 
This is probably the resort to which most teachers have had recourse 
when brought face to face with the question in the lecture-room. 
If they have not ignored the question altogether, they have adopted 
a stage that was /ow, such as that of Phaedrus in the theatre at 
Athens and those found in other Romanized theatres. Such a stage 
is the least inconvenient to deal with, and tallies well in height with 
that to which we have become accustomed in the modern theatre. 

The theatre at Epidaurus presents a ‘stage’ altogether different 
from that of the Romanized Greek theatre. In front of the stage- 
building, so-called, in this theatre was a proscenium, a handsome 
facade which consisted of eighteen engaged Ionic columns supporting 
an entablature. The proscenium was slightly advanced at each end 


1 See the citations in Miiller, Bahnenalterthiimer, Ὁ. 1291, The passages cited 
are misapplied, so that there is not even the authority of late writers for this 
“stage for the chorus,’ which is essentially a modern fiction. Much less is there 
the least suggestion of such a stage in the extant dramas. Oehmichen also, 
Das Biihnenwesen der Griechen und Rémer (in I. Miiller’s Handbuch, V. 3, 
Ῥ- 242), believes in the supplementary stage. 

2 See Haigh, Attic Theatre, p. 158. Mr. Verrall, in his review of Mr. Haigh’s 
book in the Classical Review (Vol. IV. 1890, p. 226), while regarding it certain 
that Aeschylus and his immediate successors used a stage, seems to reduce the 
height of the stage in Aeschylus to something considerably less than “ six or seven 
feet.” He says: “That the back part of the scene should be somewhat higher in 
level than the front would be in the Hamenides, as always, practically necessary; 
but it is an equally plain condition that the whole scene should be one to the eye 
and one for the purpose of inter-action and intercommunication.” — The exact 
determination of the date of the stage of the theatre at Megalopolis excavated by 
the British School at Athens is awaited with great interest. See Mr. Gardner’s 
brief statement of the results of the excavations in the Athenaeum for August 23, 
1890, repeated in American Journal of Archaeology, 1890, p. 368 ff. 


The ‘ Stage’ in Aristophanes. 161 


in the form of a wing. At its centre and in the front of each of the 
wings was a door, the sill of which in each instance was on a level 
with the orchestra. The orchestra was a complete circle, whose 
periphery approached the proscenium closely. ‘The height of the 
proscenium, including the entablature, was twelve feet. It stood 
eight feet from the front of the main building. The orchestra meas- 
ured sixty-six feet in diameter. Its outer circle was within three 
feet of the proscenium.' ‘The theatres of Assos, Oropus, and Thes- 
piae had similar proscenia. ‘There was a permanent proscenium also 
in the great theatre of Dionysus at Athens. 

When the first of these fagades was laid bare by excavation, the 
view was advanced that it was the front supporting wall of the stage. 
The Vitruvian stage had at last been brought to light. On the floor 
laid from the entablature to the wall of the main building behind the 
proscenium the actors had played their parts; the chorus were in 
the orchestra, twelve feet below. That the proscenium was the front 
supporting wall of the stage is the view vigorously maintained in 
two noteworthy books already mentioned, Albert Miiller’s Lehrbuch 
der Griechischen Biihnenalterthiimer (1886) and Mr. Haigh’s Zhe 
Attic Theatre (1890). Dr. Miiller believes in the existence of the 
above-mentioned supplementary stage for the chorus, which would 
reduce the difference of level between chorus and actors; Mr. Haigh 
stoutly and successfully argues against it.” 

Dr. Wilhelm Dorpfeld, the well-known First Secretary of the Ger- 
man Archaeological Institute at Athens, denies that the proscenium 
was the supporting wall of the stage. It was, he says, the support on 
which was displayed the scenery appropriate to the play. The actor 
stood in front of it, not over it. Actors and chorus were on the 
same level. In the time of the great dramatists, the ‘ stage’ had no 
existence.’ 

1 An excellent plan of the theatre at Epidaurus is given in Baumeister’s Denh- 
miler des klassischen Altertums, p.1735. See also Tafel LXV. for a restored view 
of the proscenium. Representations also in Miller, 2.-A4., pp. 5,6; Haigh, 4. 7., 
Pp. 130, 134, 147; and Oehmichen, Aiiinenwesen, Tafel I. For the excavations 
at Epidaurus as first reported, see ᾿Αθήναιον, IX. p. 464 ff., X. p. 53 ff.; Παρνασσός, 
VI. p. 864; Πρακτικὰ τῆς ἐν ᾿Αθήναις ἀρχαιολογικῆς ἑταιρίας, 1881, with four plates, 
1882, p. 75, 1883, p. 46 ff., with two plates. 

2 Miiller, 2.-4., pp. 129-136; Haigh, 4. 7., pp. 154-157. 

8 In 1884 Julius Hdpken presented at the University of Bonn, as candidate for 


162 John Williams White. 


This view is revolutionary. Dr. Dorpfeld, who is a trained archi- 
tect, apparently came to entertain it mainly through architectural 
considerations.’ His arguments in support of it, and of another 
view equally revolutionary, as to the date of the great theatre at 
Athens, will be presented in the winter of 1890-91 in a book already 
announced.” 

Those who have engaged in the discussion of this vital question 
have found common ground on which to stand. It is generally 
agreed that, when we turn from the architectural to the literary 
evidence, the lexicographers and scholiasts must be practically aban- 
doned ; we must depend upon the evidence furnished by the extant 


the degree of doctor of philosophy, a thesis entitled De Theatro Attico Saecult A. 
Chr. Quinti, in which he combats the generally accepted view transmitted by 
Vitruvius and Pollux that the chorus played their parts in the orchestra, the actors 
theirs on a high and narrow stage that stood behind it. According to Hépken 
“in proscaenio” (the ‘stage’) “apparatus scaenicus ponitur, quem ante ludorum 
initium spectatoribus proscaenii aulaeum obtegit.” In front of this lies the 
ὀρχήστρα, a low wooden platform occupying the greater part of the space en- 
closed by the seats. This ‘orchestra’ is in form two thirds ofa circle. About it, 
at a lower level, lies the κονίστρα. The ‘orchestra’ was occupied in common by 
actors and chorus. 

In combating the tradition transmitted by Vitruvius and Pollux, Hépken 
depends mainly on late writers. He quotes also certain passages from Aris- 
tophanes to prove that the actors must have stood in the vicinity of the spectators. 
It does not appear from his thesis that he was aware of the excavations at Epi- 
daurus. Hdépken has been treated with undeserved contempt by his critics. 

1 Tt does not appear from any published statement that Dr. Dérpfeld, at the 
time when he first announced his view, was acquainted with Hépken’s argument. 

2D as Dionysostheater in Athen, Studien zur Geschichte des antiken The- 
aters.” Dr. Dérpfeld will have Dr. E. Reisch as collaborator in this work. 

Dr. Dérpfeld’s theory was first announced in print in brief notices in the Aus- 
grabungsberichte in the Athenian “ Mittheilungen” and in extracts from a letter 
in Miiller, 2.-4., p. 415. It was next briefly presented, on information furnished 
by Dr. Dérpfeld, in G. Kawerau’s article on Theatergebaiude in Baumeister’s 
Denkmiler, Ὁ. 1730 ff. Ina review of Mr. Haigh’s Attic Theatre in the Berliner 
Philologische Wochenschrift for April 12, 1890, Dr. Dérpfeld himself states, but 
necessarily only briefly, his reasons for believing that actors and chorus played on 
the same level. Miss Harrison has published a translation of this part of Dr. 
Dérpfeld’s review in the Classical Review for June, 1890, p. 274 ff. Mr. Haigh 
answers Dr. Dérpfeld’s criticism in the same number, p. 277 ff. See also Dr. 
Dérpfeld’s review of Oehmichen’s Biihnenwesen in the Berliner Philol. Woch. for 
November 29, 1890, 


The ‘Stage’ in Aristophanes. 163 


Greek dramas themselves.’ The most bewildering confusion of 
terms and conceptions pervades the writings of the lexicographers 
and scholiasts ; and yet through all this confusion may be traced the 
dominant belief in the existence of a stage. This last fact proves no 
more than that this belief arose and became fixed before the time of 
these later writers. 

The literary evidence, then, in support of or against the theory of 
the existence of a stage in the fifth century must be sought for in the 
plays that have come down to us. It would, indeed, be surprising 
if they left us uncertain as to the facts ; and it would be scarcely less 
surprising if, on a more careful examination than, with a single ex- 
ception,” has yet been given them, they should be found to confirm 
the testimony furnished by monumental remains, and should them- 
selves supply the evidence on which we should abandon our belief in 
the existence of a stage in the time of the great dramatists. The 
importance of such a thorough examination is manifest. Mr. Haigh 
feels justified in saying: “ It appears, therefore, that the testimony 
of Aristophanes points decisively to the existence of a stage for the 
actors in the fifth century.” And again: ‘And the passages in Aris- 


1 Was spatere Schriftsteller, welche allerdings nicht selten auf das Theater- 
wesen Bezug nehmen, was Vitruv, die Scholiasten und Lexicographen, nament- 
lich Pollux Einschlagendes berichten, ist zwar zum Theil sehr werthvoll, darf aber 
fiir die Einrichtungen des fiinften Jahrhunderts, dem die betreffenden Autoren 
bereits fern standen, nur mit Vorsicht benutzt werden, so dass wir fiir die clas- 
sische Zeit wesentlich auf die Durchforschung der erhaltenen Dramen ange- 
wiesen sind, und dass diese Quelle, so bald man sich bescheidet, nicht mehr 
wissen zu wollen, als was aus den Tragédien und Komédien mit Sicherheit ermit- 
telt werden kann, eine durchaus ergiebige ist, haben neuere Forschungen gezeigt, 
welche mit dem friiher iiblichen Verfahren, den Biihnenweisungen der Scholi- 
asten und den Nachrichten der Lexicographen bei den betreffenden Untersuch- 
ungen gleiche Beachtung zu schenken, gebrochen haben.” Miller, B.-4., pp. 
107,108. ‘Diese Frage kann auch nicht entschieden werden durch den Hinweis 
auf irgend eine Nachricht eines spateren Lexikographen oder Grammatikers. 
Nur die Nachrichten welche wir den Stiicken der grossen Tragiker und Komiker 
selbst entnehmen, und welche wir bei andern Schriftstellern des V. und IV. Jahr- 
hunderts finden, kénnen als entscheidend anerkannt werden.” Déorpfeld, Ber- 
liner Philol. Woch., 1890, p. 468. Haigh also attaches great value to the evidence 
supplied by the dramas, 4. 7., p. 144. 

2 See Hermes, XXI. (1886), “Die Biihne des Aischylos,” by U. v. Wilamo- 
witz-Mollendorff. 


164 John Williams White. 


tophanes appear to prove decisively that in the fifth century the 
actors stood on a considerably higher level than the chorus.” And 
finally : “ὙΠῸ other theory, that during the fifth century actors and 
chorus were both in the orchestra and on the same level, appears to 
be conclusively disproved by certain passages in Aristophanes.”’? 

The present paper states the results of a careful inspection of the 
comedies of Aristophanes made with the intention of testing what 
may perhaps properly be called Dr. Dorpfeld’s theory. The results 
of this investigation amount to an argument in favor of the proposi- 
tion, that she Comedies of Aristophanes could not have been performed 
on the stage of Vitruvius. This paper has, therefore, been cast in the 
argumentative form.’ 


PosITIVE TESTIMONY TO THE EXISTENCE OF A STAGE FURNISHED BY 
ARISTOPHANES. 


There are certain passages in the great comedian in which the 
use of the terms ἀναβαίνειν and καταβαίνειν has been thought to 
prove the existence of a stage. Varying degrees of reliance, how- 
ever, have been placed upon these by the advocates of the old 
theory. These passages are five in number, as follows: 


τ MEDAPEYS. 
GAN ὦ πονηρὰ κόρια κἀθλίω πατρός, 
ΝΜ Ν A + 3 - , 
ἄμβατε ποττὰν μᾶδδαν, αἴ x εὕρητέ πᾳ. 
Ach. 731, 732. 


14, T., pp. 144, 146, 158. 

2 The statement of the investigation is here strictly limited to Aristophanes, 
because it seemed desirable to keep the facts to be deduced from the plays of 
each dramatist distinct. The results here presented, however, are confirmed by 
those reached by an investigation of the tragedians. This paper will be followed 
by two similar papers, the first stating the results of an inspection of the plays of 
Euripides, the second, of the plays of Aeschylus and Sophocles. 

8 Miiller, 2.-A., p. 110, for example, citing the last four passages quoted just 
below, thinks that Vesp. 1514, 1515, proves conclusively that the actor stood upon 
the stage, but says that ‘elsewhere’ καταβαίνειν signifies simply “abtreten,” and 
correspondingly ἀναβαίνειν means “auftreten.” On the other hand, Haigh, 4. 7,, 
p. 144, cites the same passages as proof that “the actors had been accustomed to 
stand on an elevated platform.” The only passage of the four that is doubtful, in 
Mr. Haigh’s view, is Vesp, 1514, 1515, but in this also he thinks that the literal 
meaning is much the more probable. 


The ‘Stage’ in Artstophanes. 165 


2. OIKETHS A. 
ὦ μακάριε 
ἀλλαντοπῶλα, δεῦρο δεῦρ᾽ ὦ φίλτατε 
> ΄, NX A / ~ tal 4 
ἀνάβαινε σωτΉρ Τῇ πόλει και νὼν φανείς. 
Eq. 147-149. 
ou @IAOKAEQN. 
ἀνάβαινε δεῦρο χρυσομηλολόνθιον, 
τῇ χειρὶ τουδὶ λαβομένη τοῦ σχοινίου. 
” / 3 ε Ν ἃς ’, 
ἔχου * φυλάττου δ᾽, ὡς σαπρὸν τὸ σχοινίον. 
Vesp. 1341-1343. 
4. ΦΙΛΟΚΛΕΩΝ. ᾿ 
31 ΤῊΝ , 3. ἰδέ 5 > » Ν Ν 
ἀτὰρ καταβατέον γ᾽ ἐπ᾽ αὐτούς μοι" σὺ δὲ 
ἅλμην Kika τούτοισιν, ἢν ἐγὼ κρατῶ. 
Vesp. 1514, 1515. 
ἘΣ ΧΟΡΟΣ. 
τί δῆτα διατρίβεις ἔχων, ἀλλ᾽ οὐκ ἄγεις 
τασδὶ λαβών; ἐν ὅσῳ δὲ καταβαίνεις, ἐγὼ 
ἐπᾷάσομαι μέλος τι μελλοδείπνικον. 
Eccl. 1151-1153. 

It will be observed that the reference in these passages is always 
to an actor (or mute), and that the terms are used, either just after 
an entrance (ἀναβαίνειν) or just before an exit (καταβαίνειν). The 
terms have commonly been interpreted to mean respectively, come 
wp upon the stage, and go or come down into the orchestra. 

The same words are often used in other passages in Aristophanes, 
but in different application.’ ‘These occurrences, therefore, have no 
direct bearing on the present discussion. 

The text of all of the passages quoted is sound. If the ordinary 
interpretation of any one of them can be successfully maintained to 
the exclusion of any alternative view, the existence of a stage in the 
time of Aristophanes must be conceded. 

An interesting scholium on the second of the passages quoted 
(Eq. 149) reads as follows: ἀνάβαινε σωτὴρ τῇ πόλει : Ἵνα, φησὶν, ἐκ 

a , SLEEK \ a) 3 a Ν , 4 > a / al 
THs παρόδου ἐπὶ τὸ λογεῖον ἀναβῇ. (διὰ τί οὖν ἐκ τῆς παρόδου; τοῦτο 
Ν 3 3 ἴω. , > “ 9 ’, > / Nive BEZN Ν ζω. 
γὰρ οὐκ ἀναγκαῖον. λεκτέον οὖν ὅτι ἀναβαίνειν ἐλέγετο τὸ ἐπὶ τὸ λογεῖον 

1So ἀναβαίνειν Vesp. 398, Ran. 130, Frg. 329 (Kock); καταβαίνειν Ach. 409, 


Nub. 237, 508, Vesp. 347, 397, Pax 725, Lys. 864, 873, 874, 883, 884, Thes. 482, 
483, Ran. 35. 


166 Sohn Williams White. 


εἰσιέναι. ὃ Kal πρόσκειται. λέγεται yap καταβαίνειν) τὸ ἀπαλλάττεσθαι 
ἐντεῦθεν ἀπὸ τοῦ παλαιοῦ ἔθους. (τοῦτον δὲ οἱ μὲν Κλεώνυμον, οἱ δὲ 
Ὑπέρβολον, οἱ δέ φασιν EvBovdov εἶναι. ὡς ἐν θυμέλῃ δὲ τὸ ἀνάβαινε.) 

The scholium is here given as printed in Diibner’s edition. In 
Suidas the words read (s.v. ἀνάβαινε) : ἰστέον ὅτι ἔλεγον οἱ παλαιοὶ τὸ 
ἐπὶ λόγιον εἰσιέναι ἀναβαίνειν, καταβαίνειν δὲ τὸ ἀπαλλάττεσθαι ἐντεῦθεν, 
ἀπὸ τοῦ παλαιοῦ ἔθους. ᾿Αριστοφάνης “ἀλλαντοπῶλα, δεῦρο δεῦρ᾽, ὦ 
φίλτατε, ἀνάβαινε σωτὴρ τῇ πόλει καὶ νῷν paveis.” 

The scholium is clear. It should be noted first that both scholi- 
asts assume that there was a stage in the poet’s time.’ The point 
under contention is simply whether Agoracritus came in through the 
parodos and mounted the stage, or came in through one of the wings, 
where, as both of the scholiasts would have agreed, the actor almost 
invariably made his appearance, if he did not come directly from the 
σκηνή. ‘The second scholiast corrects the other, and says: “It should 
be understood that 40 come in upon the stage was called ‘ascending,’ 
just as fo retire from it was called ‘descending.’ ‘This use of the 
words arose from the ancient practice.’ What he denies is that éva- 
βαίνειν signified “to come wp on the stage.” Here then is a com- 
mentator who believed, as the moderns also generally have believed, 
that there was a stage in the time of Aristophanes, transmitting the 
tradition that the words ἀναβαίνειν and καταβαίνειν when thus used by 
the poet had lost all sense of elevation and descent.? Before Aris- 
tophanes’s time they had become technical ‘stage’ terms.? This 
came about, he says, “from the ancient practice.” He is referring 
to the tradition that when tragedy arose from the dithyrambic chorus 
and a ‘speaker’ was first introduced, the latter took his place upon 
the elevation afforded by the so-called ἔλεος or Oupedy.* 


1 Cf. the scholiast on Ran. 181 and 297. 

2 This use of the words has its parallel in the celebrated court-scene in the 
Wasps. It is hardly possible that βήματα were brought on with the other court- 
appurtenances, but the technical words are nevertheless used, ἀναβαίνειν in 905, 
944, 963, 977, καταβαίνειν in 979, 980, 981. 

3 This is the point of view from which the last words of the scholium are used, 
ὡς ἐν θυμέλῃ δὲ τὸ ἀνάβαινε. That θυμέλη here means ‘stage’ is clear from the 
scholium on Av. 673, ὡς ἐν θυμέλῃ yap προσωπεῖον ἐξῆλθεν ἔχουσα (speaking of 
Procne). 

4 Poll. IV. 123: ἐλεὸς δ᾽ ἦν τράπεζα ἀρχαία, ἐφ᾽ ἣν mpd Θέσπιδος εἷς Tis ἀναβὰς 
τοῖς χορευταῖς ἀπεκρίνατο. Cf. also Et. M., p. 458, 30. 


The ‘ Stage’ in Aristophanes. 167 


The scholiast in V, then, offers an alternative to the common 
interpretation of ἀναβαίνειν and καταβαίνειν. He transmits an ancient 
tradition which gives the words a meaning that, if applicable to Aris- 
tophanes, destroys their force as an argument to prove the existence 
of a stage in his time. In determining whether or not there was a 
stage, we are then thrown back upon other internal evidence. If this 
evidence proves that there was no stage, we shall naturally attach to 
the words in the period when there was no stage the meaning for 
which the scholiast vouches in a later, though still early, time, since 
in the sense of ‘enter’ and ‘retire’ they are precisely as applicable 
to the scenic action in the period when there was no stage as in the 
somewhat later time of which the scholiast speaks.! 

The passages will now be considered in order. In the Knights, 
the Sausage-seller is espied (v. 146) at the left, and Demosthenes 
calls out, ““O come in, come in!”’ In the passage quoted from the 
Acharnians, the girls are following their father, who says to them as 
he advances to a central position, “Ye poor bairns of an unlucky 
father, come on and get your bannock, an ye find it anywhere.” In 
the first passage quoted from the Wasps, Philocleon comes in ‘ fight- 
ing drunk,’ torch in hand. He rails at the crowd that follows. The 
συμπόται, whose party he has broken up, make threats of conse- 
quences on the morrow and retire. The old man is left in posses- 


1 Three periods must be recognized: the earliest time, when the actor stood 
on the ἔλεος; the classical time, when he stood in front of the proscenium; the 
Macedonian epoch, when, with the loss of the chorus and the general vitiation of 
public taste, he did doubtless stand upon it. In the first period, ἀναβαίνειν and 
καταβαίνειν meant ‘ascend’ and ‘descend’; in both the second and the third, 
‘enter’ and ‘retire.’ In the first period, ἀνάβαινε and κατάβαινε, applied to the 
original ‘speaker’ and to the first actor of Thespis, who doubtless took the same 
position, actually did mean ‘ascend’ and ‘descend.’ But with the introduction 
of the second actor, when the dialogue became independent of the chorus, and a 
complete story was acted from beginning to end, involving many ‘mounts’ and 
‘descents,’ the elevation disappeared as an impossible contrivance. This is the 
second period, of which the scholiast had no knowledge. It is surely not without 
significance that just at this time Aeschylus invented what were in effect a means 
of compensation for the loss of the elevation, — the cothurn, the high mask, the 
padded figure, equipped with which in tragedy the actor stood out distinct from 
the members of the chorus. The terms might still be used in a technical sense 
when the actor made his entrance or exit. Under just what circumstances they were 
so used will be noted later. See p.170f. They occur, in fact, only in comedy. 


168 Sohn Willams White. 


sion of the field, with the girl (αὐλητρίς) whom he has carried off. 
The scene has been a spirited one entirely at the right. The συμπό- 
tat have appeared and disappeared. Then the old man dacks on 
the scene toward the centre, saying to the girl, who has been standing 
at one side and who is apparently reluctant to come forward, ‘‘Come 
on here! Lay hold on this old ‘rope.’ But be on your guard, for 
the ‘rope’ is rotten.” The following verses show what the action was. 
The σχοινίον was the σκυτίον καθειμένον with which every comic actor 
who played a man’s part was equipped. Philocleon pulls the girl 
in in a manner that did undoubtedly “ provoke the laughter of the 
boys.”? It will be agreed at once that the problem of the scenic 
action is made enormously difficult by the supposition that Philocleon 
is on a lofty ‘stage’ and Dardanis down below in the orchestra ! 
And yet this view has been seriously advanced.? 

In the first of the twc passages where καταβαίνειν occurs, the word 
is used in a metaphorical, not in a literal sense. καταβαίνειν here 
means 7m certamen descendere, as is now generally agreed. The 
word occurs in this sense in Herodotus, Sophocles, Xenophon, and 
Plato,®? and this sense exactly suits the connexion here. 

Certain preliminary considerations are necessary to the interpre- 
tation of the second of the two passages where καταβαίνειν occurs in 
the apparent sense of ‘descend’ (Eccl. 1152). 

It should be observed that the codices assign nothing to Blepyrus 
after verse 1150. He has something still to do, but nothing further 
to say. To assign to him any part of the lyric which begins at 1163 
is a mischievous modern fiction. This belongs to the chorus, and R 
assigns it in four parts to semichoruses. Again, in 1138 μείρακας 
cannot refer to the chorus, as the scholiast says that it does. The 
chorus are women of the age of Praxagora, and they are spoken of as 
γυναῖκες. So by Praxagora in 504; by the maid in 1125 ; by them- 
selves in 1164. But μεῖραξ in Aristophanes signifies young girl, lass. 
Cf. Thes. 410 (unmarried), Eccl. 611, 696 (ὡραία), Plut. 1071, 1079 


1Cf, Nub. 538, 539, Ach. 1216, 1217 (a similar scene), Nub. 734, Vesp. 739, 
Thes. 643 ff., et pass. See also Miiller, 4.-4., p. 246 f. 

2“ Alloquitur scortillum illud, quod in convivio arreptum sequi se jussit, et e 
loco sublimi stans blande appellat et ascendere hortatur.” Chrestien. 

8 This sense was recognized early. Cf. Suidas (s.v. κατάβα) : καὶ καταβαί: 


νειν τὸ εἰς ἀγῶνα χωρεῖν - “ ἐνταῦθα καταϑαίνει παραβαλλόμενος. 


The ‘ Stage’ in Aristophanes. 169 


(note especially). It is equally clear that τασδί in 1152 cannot refer 
to the chorus. The leader of the chorus would have said ἡμᾶς, as 
universally, and certainly would not have excluded herself. τασδί 
refers to the μείρακες. Besides the chorus, the maid, and Blepyrus, 
then, the presence of others on the scene must be recognized, — 
of the dancing-girls whom Blepyrus is bringing to the dinner. 

Again, the language in 1153 should be noted. The chorus says 
ézacopat, which means not simply “sing,” but “sing in accompani- 
ment.” Cf. Eur. Elec. 864, Hdt. i. 132. On the old view the words 
would have the absurd and impossible meaning, “As you descend 
from the stage, 111 accompany you with a bit of asong’’! Just here 
an acute observation made by von Velsen is pertinent. In account- 
ing for the omission of the chorus following r111 he says: “‘ XOPOY 
adieci editores secutus, quamquam ipse magis in eam sententiam 
inclino, ut omnibus illis locis non cantus, sed solas saltationes chori 
fuisse putem.” The close of the play, which is exactly similar to the 
close of the Wasps, confirms this view. The poet furnishes, for the 
further delight of his audience, an elaborate dance performed by 
specialists. These are the pecpaxes. 

The last scene of the play, then, is as follows. The maid comes 
in (1112) from the dinner to fetch her master. Her language shows 
that she is tipsy. In reply to her question where her master is, the 
chorus answer, with comic recognition of the situation, “ No doubt 
he’ll turn up shortly.” He does appear at once with the μείρακες. 
The poet has a special purpose in producing them, but aside from 
this their presence with Blepyrus is perfectly motived. Such ὀρχη- 
στρίδες Were among the commonest means of entertainment at an 
Athenian dinner. The maid addresses her master in lively and jovial 
language. He is in quite the same mood, cracks his joke, and says 
he is ‘off.’ With the words in 1149, 1150 the ‘business’ of the 
play is practically at an end. Only the ‘exeunt omnes’ remains. 
It is at this point that the chorus say, “‘ Why, then, don’t you take 
these girls and go? And as you retire, 11] accompany you with song 
in anticipation of our dinner.’’ Blepyrus brings forward the dancers, 
and after a word from the coryphaeus to the judges, the orchestic 
performance begins. ‘The first semichorus joyously sing that dinner 
waits, and exhort the second semichorus to the dance; they, with 
the words τοῦτο δρῶ (1166), execute a movement simply to the 


170 John Williams White. 


music of the flute ; then follows the special dance of the μείρακες 
(who certainly are referred to by τάσδε in 1166), accompanied by the 
song of the first semichorus. In this song occurs that extraordinary 
compound in whose invention the rioting humour of the poet vies 
with his dancers for the favour of the audience. With the following 
song of the second semichorus, all finally leave the theatre at the 
right, dancing, led by Blepyrus. 

If this explanation of the five passages is correct, these are the re- 
sults. It is shown that the old interpretation of the terms (‘ ascend’ 
and ‘descend’) is impossible for the Vitruvian stage in the third 
and fifth passages ; moreover, in the fifth, that the sense ‘retire’ is 
also impossible in the scholiast’s application of the meaning, since 
actors and chorus are on a level. The last passage, therefore, is 
positive proof against the existence of a stage. 

The words dvaBaivew and καταβαίνειν (old-fashioned terms, come 
down from the fathers), when thus employed, are always used with 
a special touch of humour. By their use the speaker reminds the 
audience, in the good-natured way characteristic of comedy,’ that 
he and his fellows are ‘on the boards.’ When there is no such inten- 
tion, the ordinary words to express ‘ approach’ and ‘ departure ’ are 
used, generally προσιέναι and προσέρχεσθαι, or ἀπιέναι" But many 
others occur. In no one of them, however, is there the least indica- 
tion of change of level. The plays are full of illustrations. The 
following, for example, occur in the Birds. The case, it will be re- 


1 The humorous way in which the comic actor takes the spectators: into his 
confidence in openly recognizing the theatre and its appurtenances has many 
illustrations in comedy. Thus, the jokes by direct reference to the ἐκκύκλημα, 
Ach, 408, 409, Thes. 96, 265, cf. Vesp. 1475; the reference to the ‘scenes,’ Pax 
731; to the εἴσοδος, Nub. 326, Av. 296; to the statue of Hermes in front of the 
proscenium, Nub. 1478; to the seats, Eq. 163, 704, Nub. 1203; to the mask-makers, 
Eq. 232; to the scene-shifter, Pax 174; to the constables, Pax 774; to the chora- 
gus, Ach. 1155, Pax 1022. The references to the poet, to individuals in the audi- 
ence, to the audience collectively, to the judges, are very numerous. Of the same 
general intent is the express recognition by the chorus at the close of the plays 
that they have been furnishing the spectators entertainment, as Nub. 1510, Vesp. 
1536, 1537, Pax 1355-1357, hes. 1227. 

2 See E. Droysen, Quaestiones de Aristophanis Re Scaenica, who has collected 
the instances, as also those where an actor enters or leaves by the main scene, 
The terms used in this case are generally εἰσιέναι and ἐξιέναι. 


The ‘ Stage’ in Aristophanes. ΤΙ 


membered, is always that of an actor approaching or leaving by a side 
entrance (or more probably by the parodos). ‘To express approach 
in the Birds, we have ἥκειν, 992, 1022, 1038, 1587; τρέχειν, 1121 ; 
ἐσθεῖν, 1169 ; προσιέναι, 1312; προσέρχεσθαι, 1341, 1414, 1709. To 
express departure we find βαδίζειν, 837 ; ἰέναι, 846, 990; ἀπέρχεσθαι, 
948 (bis) ; ἐκτρέχειν, 991 ; ὑπαποκινεῖν, IOI ; ὑπάγειν, ΤΟΙ 7 ; ἀπιέναι, 
1020, 1026, 1029, 1636; ἀποσοβεῖν, 1032 ; ἀποτρέχειν, 1162, 1549; 
ἀποπέτεσθαι, 1369." 

The foregoing interpretation of ἀναβαίνειν and καταβαίνειν is pow- 
erfully supported by the negative consideration that “hey are applied 
only to actors, never to the chorus. And yet, on the old view, we 
should expect the words to be used of the movements of the chorus 
rather than of those of the actor. For assuming for a moment the 
existence of a stage, for the sake of the argument, the case stands 
thus. There is only one place in Aristophanes (Plut. 253 ff.) where it 
is necessary to assume that an actor comes in through the parodos.? 
He may come on through the wings. This is the view of the second 
scholiast on Eq. 149, who certainly thought that there was a stage. 
The actor, then, is on the ‘stage’ from the first, and the word ἀνα- 
βαίνειν in the sense of “come up from below” could not properly be 
applied to him. But the chorus are incontrovertibly on a lower level, 
in the case assumed, and as incontrovertibly in many instances they 
mount the ‘stage,’ that is, come to the main scene of the action. In- 
stances of this in seven of the eleven plays are cited below. Now it is 


1 Those who believe that ἀναβαίνειν and καταβαίνειν signify ‘ascend’ and 
‘descend’ may well be called upon to explain why the actor is brought in only 
a few times through the parodos, but in so many other instances through the 
‘wings.’ What discoverable reason is there for making the place of entrance of 
the Megarian and his girls in the Acharnians (729 ff.) different from that of the 
Boeotian and his servant (860 ff.)? Or that of Xanthias in the Wasps (1292 ff.) 
different from that of Philocleon and Dardanis (1326 ff.)? But Schénborn (Die 
Skene der Hellenen), Droysen, and others invariably bring in the actor by the 
‘wings’ unless they are forced to adopt the alternative. 

2 Not that, on the assumption that there was no stage, this may not naturally 
have happened. If the stage is abandoned, the setting of all of the plays will be 
much simplified. This is not the place in which to illustrate the bearings of this 
important fact, but see Dr. Dérpfeld’s brilliant picture of the scene and action 
of the Agamemnon, as given by Miss Harrison, AZythology and Monuments of 
Ancient Athens, p. 292 f. 


178 John Wilhams White. 


extraordinary that the chorus should be exhorted or should exhort one 
another to mount the ‘stage,’ as it is said, or should be ordered off 
the ‘stage’ down into the orchestra, and yet that the terms ἀναβαίνειν 
and καταβαίνειν should never be applied to them, although applied to 
the actor in similar circumstances. ‘The words used are very differ- 
ent. They are never terms zmplying change of level. For example, 
in the Wasps, the old dicasts, when they make their attack upon 
Bdelycleon, who is directly in front of the main scene, that is, on 
the stage if there is a stage, say πᾶς ἐπίστρεφε δεῦρο (422) and 
εἶτ᾽ ἐπ᾽ αὐτὸν ἵεσο (423). When they are driven off, the words are 
οὐκ ἄπιτε; (458) and dp’ ἐμέλλομέν ποθ᾽ ὑμᾶς ἀποσοβήσειν τῷ χρόνῳ 
(460). So in the Birds the exhortation to attack is ἰὼ ἰώ, ἔπαγ 
ἔπιθ᾽ ἐπίφερε πολέμιον ὁρμὰν φονίαν (343 f.) ; and a little later ἐλελε- 
λεῦ χώρει (364). The chorus fall back with the words dvay’ és τάξιν 
(400). In the Peace, Hermes exhorts the chorus, εἰσιόντες ws τά- 
χιστα τοὺς λίθους ἀφέλκετε (427), and the word used to express their 
falling back is ἀπιέναι (550). Illustrations need not be multiplied. 
The poet’s actual choice of words in these situations shows first that 
the exhortation or command cannot have been to mount a ‘stage’ or 
go down from it, but to come forward between the wings and, again, 
retire ; and amounts secondly almost to a conclusive proof that the 
terms ἀναβαίνειν and καταβαίνειν cannot have had the signification in 
application to the actor that has generally been given them. 


POSITIVE TESTIMONY AGAINST THE EXISTENCE OF A STAGE FURNISHED 
BY ARISTOPHANES. 


The facts will, for convenience, be presented under the following 
heads, although the divisions are not strictly coordinate, and the facts 
presented under the different heads are not mutually exclusive. 


I. The Argument from Mingling of Chorus and Actors. 
II. The Argument from the Close of the Plays. 
11. The Argument from Impossible Situations. 
IV. The Argument from the Over-crowded ‘ Stage.’ 

V. The Argument from Probability. 


1 Miiller, B.-A., p. 109, declares that the /emguage in Pax 564, 565, shows that 
the actors were on a higher level than the chorus! That he should advance this 
seriously as an argument is past belief. 


The ‘ Stage’ in Aristophanes. 173 


I. Argument from Mingling of Chorus and Actors. 


In twenty-five situations in the plays of Aristophanes the chorus 
and actors (or mutes associated with the actors, or — in one instance 
—a musician who comes from among the actors) are at a given 
moment on the same level. In eleven of them, on the old theory, 
the chorus are on the ‘stage’; in fourteen, actors, mutes, or a musi- 
cian, are in the orchestra. 

The argument from these instances will stand thus. If the facts 
are as stated, the burden of proof rests on those who believe in the 
existence of a stage to show that the given situation is, so far as a 
common level is concerned, not the situation throughout the play. 
If nothing in the language or course of the action prior or subse- 
quent to these situations indicates that there has been a change of 
level, we have proof that the ‘stage’ in Aristophanes is a fiction, 
unless we either deny in the first eleven instances that the chorus 
entered by the orchestra or assert for all of them that Aristophanes, 
generally so careful in furnishing motive for introits and exits, allowed 
these changes of level to occur without intimation. 


Chorus on the same level with Actors. 


τὴς HMIXOPION. 
* Ν a A 3 a ε > fal 
OUTOS συ ποι θεῖς ; ου μένεις 5 ως εἰ θενεῖς 
τὸν ἄνδρα τοῦτον, αὐτὸς ἀρθήσει τάχα. 
Ach. 564, 565. 
The first semichorus are about to s#zke Dicaeopolis, when the 
second violently interfere. θείνειν signifies in Aristophanes and else- 
where to strike with some part of the person or with something in 
the hand.’ Before the great Euripidean scene, when the intention 
of the chorus was to sone Dicaeopolis, the words used were βάλλω, 
maiw (once), and καταλεύω (or an equivalent expression). 


ae ΧΟΡΟΣ. 
Ν 4 Ν / , 
EXE νυν, ἄλειψον τὸν τράχηλον τουτῳί. 
ἔχε νυν, ἐπέγκαψον λαβὼν ταδί. 
Eq. 490 and 493. 


1Cf. Eq. 640, Vesp. 1384, Av. 54, 1613, Lys. 364, 821, Ran. 855 (meta- 
phorical). 


174 John Williams White. 


These verses are assigned to the chorusin RVAPMI®O. The 
editors, following Enger, assign them to Oixérys A, doubtless because 
of the extreme difficulty «the scenic situation on the supposition of 
a stage. This sort of error is wide-spread in the texts. Other in- 
stances will be noted below. The scholiast explains the action: 
στέαρ διδοῦσιν αὐτῷ ἀλείφεσθαι, ἵνα εὐχερῶς ὀλισθαίνειν δύνηται. And 


again: σκόροδον αὐτῷ προσφέρει. ὃ φασὶ δεῖν αὐτὸν ἐπιφαγεῖν. 


3. ΧΟΡΟΣ. 
ἀπαρυστέον τε τῶν ἀπειλῶν ταυτῃί. 
Eq. 921, 922. 
All the codices give the words to the chorus; Bergk, Kock, von 
Velsen to the ἀλλαντοπώλης, doubtless for the reason mentioned 
above. The coryphaeus at this point jocosely hands Agoracritus a 
ζωμήρυσις. 
4. ΦΙΛΟΚΔΈΕΩΝ. 
ἃ Ν 3 \ \ - et > , > 3 / 
οἱ. μὲν ἐς TOV πρωκτὸν αὐτῶν ἐσπέτεσθ᾽ ὠργισμένοι, 
οἱ δὲ τὠφθαλμὼ ᾽ν κύκλῳ κεντεῖτε καὶ τοὺς δακτύλους. 
BAEAYKAEQN. 
SBN Le! > 3 > / > » A Lal / 
οὐχὶ σοῦσθ᾽; οὐκ ἐς κόρακας ; οὐκ ἄπιτε; TALE TH ξύλῳ. 


Vesp. 431, 432, and 458. 


At the close of this spirited scene, Xanthias does as he is ordered, 
and clubs the chorus. 


τς EPMHS. 
ἀλλὰ Tals apats 
εἰσιόντες ὡς τάχιστα τοὺς λίθους ἀφέλκετε. 


ΧΟΡΟΣ. 


A ’ 
ὑπότεινε δὴ πᾶς καὶ κάταγε τοῖσιν κάλῳς. 


ΧΟΡΟΣ. 


ἀλλ᾽ ἄγετον νῦν ἕλκετε καὶ σφώ. 


TPYTAIOS. 
οὔκουν ἕλκω κἀξαρτῶμαι 
3 id ‘\ ΄ 
κἀπεμπίπτω καὶ σπουδάζω ; 


Pax 426, 427; 458, and 469-471. 


The ‘Stage’ tn Aristophanes. 175 


The chorus, Hermes, and Trygaeus are all pulling at once on the 
ropes by which the great statue of Peace is finally brought to light. 
The chorus takes part in the libation, 431-457." 


6. ΟἸΚΈΤΗΣ. 
οὐ γάρ, οἵτινες 

ἡμῶν καταχεόντων ὕδωρ τοσουτονὶ 
ἐς ταὐτὸ τοῦθ᾽ ἑστᾶσ᾽ ἰόντες χωρίον ; Pax 970-972. 

The servant has doused the chorus (τοισδί, 969), who stand about 
those engaged in the sacrifice, and join in the prayers offered. The 
dousing scene is similar to that in Lys. 381 ff., where the semi- 
choruses are on the same level. See below, p. 185. See also the use 
of καταχέω in Plut. 790. 


7] TPYYTAIO“&. 


> 


λ᾽ ὦ πρὸ Tod πεινῶντες ἐμβάλλεσθε τῶν λαγῴων. 
Pax 1312. 


The kitchen scene begins at 1191. Cf. 1197. Trygaeus is about 
to go within to the dinner that has. been made ready. The chorus 


1 I conceive that the second scene in the Peace was managed as follows: Try- 
gaeus mounts skyward on his beetle. The girls and servants go within (149),— 
an important fact to note. In mid-air Trygaeus chants the verses that give the 
scene-shifter the time needed for the change of scene. Trygaeus actually ad- 
dresses him in appealing language (174). The new scene is suspended, as was the 
old one, on the wall of the proscenium. It represents the οἰκία of Zeus (178), in 
front of which the scene-shifter and the attendants pile a heap of stones, unless in- 
deed these were already there, concealed during the first scene by the wall of the 
beetle-pen. The beetle gently descends to the floor of the orchestra. Trygaeus 
dismounts. He is now ἐν οὐρανῷ. The scene thus conceived can be perfectly 
managed during the following action. Thus, Trygaeus announces the hour has 
come to haul Peace out of the pit in which War has immured her (292 ff.), and 
summons the chorus, who come followed by a great crowd. Hermes, finally won 
over, himself lends a hand (416, 417), and takes direction of the work. He bids 
the chorus and their followers come in (εἰσιόντες, that is, to the space between 
the wings) and shovel away the stones (427). This they do, and when the liba- 
tion has been made and the ropes have been adjusted, they all pull to the “ Yo, 
heave ho!” of Hermes (459 ff.). Finally the others are pushed aside and the 
chorus of farmers pull alone (508 ff.). And so the action continues in the sim- 
plest manner possible. — In one other play of Aristophanes the scene is changed 
with an actor present, namely, the Frogs, in which the poet had resort to a 
moving scene. 


176 John Williams White. 


are invited (cf. 1305-1310) to fall to on whatever has been left in 
the kitchen of the dishes that have been prepared. 


8. XOPOS. 
ἐλελελεῦ χώρει κάθες τὸ ῥάμφος - οὐ μέλλειν ἐχρῆν. 
ἕλκε τίλλε παῖε δεῖρε, κόπτε πρώτην τὴν χύτραν. 
Av. 364, 365. 


The pots are on the old fellows’ heads. 


9- ΧΟΡΟΣ TEPONTON. 
A Ν , \ ἧς a ε - 
κἂν μὴ καλούντων τοὺς μοχλοὺς χαλῶσιν al γυναῖκες, 
ἐμπιμπράναι χρὴ τὰς θύρας καὶ τῷ καπνῷ πιέζειν. 
Lys. 310, 311. 


The old men are just in front of the main scene, from which 
Lysistrata enters at 430. Here they intend to set their fire going.’ 


10. ΘΕΡΆΠΩΝ. 
νὴ τὸν AC? ὡς ἤδη γε χωροῦσ᾽ ἔνδοθεν. 
Lys. 1241. 


The persons who appear are Lysistrata, a semichorus of Laco- 
nians, and a semichorus of Athenians. ‘They come directly from 
the main scene, the gates of the Acropolis. 


1 The language of 286-288 (note σιμόν) seems at the first glance to indicate a 
change of level, but only at the first glance. These verses are part of a lyric 
strophe, which is followed immediately by the antistrophe. Four such lyric num- 
bers occur after the entrance of the chorus of old men before they turn to the 
main scene and at 306 (the verses beginning here are iambic tetrameters) pro- 
ceed to execute the purpose for which they came. During these lyrics the old 
men are in the orchestra. They certainly cannot be mounting the stairway that 
leads to the ‘stage.’ The language in 286-288 is perfectly justified by the scene, 
which represents the approach to the Acropolis, with the wall above. (Lysistrata 
and other women appear here in the course of the action on of of the prosce- 
nium, 829 ff.) That the poet was thus able, assisted by the painted scene, safely to 
appeal to the imagination of his audience finds striking confirmation in the Thes- 
mophoriazusae. The second scene of this play is the Thesmophorium, which 
stood on high ground. Mnesilochus, announcing the coming of the chorus, says 
(281), ὅσον τὸ χρῆμ᾽ ἀνέρχεθ᾽ ὑπὸ τῆς λίγνυος. But the chorus are coming into 
the orchestra on a dead level. Compounds of ἀνά are used also in 585, 623, 893, 
1045. 


The ‘Stage’ in Aristophanes. Τὴ. 
11. Thes. 730-738. 


During the time that intervenes between the exit and reappear- 
ance of the First Woman with her servant, the chorus are left in 
guard of Mnesilochus, who has fled to the altar in the Thesmopho- 
rium. The chorus have been implored for help in 696-698. TZhey 
give the advice to set him afire in 726, 727. He will be free to fly 
while the First Woman is off the scene, if the chorus do not guard 
him. The Third Woman is set to guard him (762-764) when the 
First Woman leaves the scene a second time to go to the prytanes. 
The certain conclusion from this last situation is that there was no 
one present competent to keep watch during her first absence ex- 
cept the chorus, and that the poet who provided for the second case 
would not have neglected the first. The chorus are free during the 
following scene to bring on the parabasis. During the first scene, 
while the chorus is in charge of Mnesilochus, there is no lyric 
number. 


Actors, Mutes, or a Musician on the same level with the Chorus. 


Τ2: ΔΙΚΑΙΟΠΟΛΙΣ. 
ἕπεσθέ νυν ἄδοντες ὦ τήνελλα καλλίνικος. 
Ach. 1231. 
Dicaeopolis, the two girls (1200), and the chorus leave the theatre 
together. 

ee AIKAIOS. 
ε / > πὸ 4 
ἡττήμεθ᾽ - ὦ κινούμενοι 
πρὸς τῶν θεῶν δέξασθέ μου 
θοϊμάτιον, ὡς 
3 Lo) Ν ε “ 
ἐξαυτομολῶ πρὸς ὑμᾶς. 

ΝΡ. 1102-1104, 


For a discussion of the action here, see below under 20. 


14. ΧΟΡΟΣ. 

ἀλλ᾽ ἐξάγετ᾽, εἴ τι φιλεῖτ᾽ ὀρχούμενοι, θύραζε 
ἡμᾶς ταχύ" τοῦτο γὰρ οὐδείς πω πάρος δέδρακεν, 
ὀρχούμενος ὅστις ἀπήλλαξεν χορὸν τρυγῳδῶν. 


Vesp. 1535-1537- 


178 John Williams White. 


Philocleon, the three sons of Carcinus, Xanthias, and the chorus 
leave the theatre together. On the force of καταβατέον in 1514, see 
above, p. 168. 


15. TPYTAIOS. 
δεῦρο σύ" 
καταθήσομαι γὰρ αὐτὸς ἐς μέσους ἄγων. 
ἀλλ᾽ ὦ πρυτάνεις δέχεσθε τὴν Θεωρίαν. 
ac’ ὡς προθύμως ὃ πρύτανις παρεδέξατο. 
Pax 881, 882, and 906, 907. 


For a discussion of the action here, see below under 20. 


16. TPYTAIOS. 


A »“" ”~ ea “ Lal 
και τοις θεαταῖς ριπτε τῶν κριθῶν. 


OIKETHS. 
idov. 
Pax 962. 
For a discussion of the action here, see below under 20. 


ys ΧΟΡΟΣ. 
ἀλλ᾽ ἀράμενοι φέρωμεν οἱ προτεταγμένοι τὸν νυμφίον, ὦνδρες. 
Pax 1339-1341. 
Trygaeus, Opora, and the chorus leave the theatre together. 


18. Av. 665-684. 


The flute-player enters from the main scene, is engaged first with 
the actors present, and then passes to the chorus and plays the 
accompaniment to the parabasis. 


19. Av. 1706-1765. 


Note especially 1721, 1722,and 1755. Peithetaerus, the Princess, 
the Messenger, and the chorus leave the theatre together. 


20. ΔΙΟΝΎΣΟΣ. 
ἱερεῦ διαφύλαξόν μ᾽, ἵν᾽ ὦ σοι ξυμπότης. 
Ran. 297. 
Compare the passages quoted above in 13, 15, 16. The situation 
in these four places is practically the same, that of an actor or mute 


The ‘Stage’ in Aristophanes. 179 


very near the spectators or actually among them. In discussing it, 
we must free ourselves, if possible, of a very natural prepossession in 
favour of a stage. This prepossession seems to have affected the 
views of commentators, who show a strong disposition not to take 
the poet literally, in the face of the utmost directness of language.! 
Certainly a stage so far removed from the spectators interposes 
a great barrier to the action which the language of the poet seems 
naturally to demand. The scholiast on Ran. 297 felt the difficulty 
of the situation: ἐν προεδρίᾳ κάθηται ὁ τοῦ Διὸς (sic) ἱερεύς. ἀποροῦσι 
δέ τινες πῶς ἀπὸ τοῦ λογείου περιελθὼν καὶ κρυφθεὶς ὄπισθεν τοῦ ἱερέως 
τοῦτο λέγει. φαίνονται δὲ οὐκ εἶναι ἐπὶ τοῦ λογείου, ἀλλ᾽ ἐπὶ τῆς ὀρχή- 
στρας, ἐν 7 ὃ Διόνυσος ἐνέβη καὶ ὁ πλοῦς ἐπετελεῖτο. ‘This is a telling 
concession, and it comes early. 

The poet expresses himself in the four passages quoted above in 
language that is direct and unequivocal. In the Clouds, where, 
as the previous verses make it certain, the address is to the specta- 
tors,” the Just Logic cries, “ Ye blackguards, in God’s name take my 
cloak, for I desert to you.” ‘The natural inference is that he tosses 
them his outer garment and disappears among them, up the stair- 
way between the wedges of seats. ἐξαυτομολῶ might mean simply 
“come over to your side,” but no such interpretation of the previous 
words is possible. One does not deal metaphorically with a cloak.’ 

Again, in the Peace, with the words δεῦρο σύ Trygaeus is address- 
ing Theoria. He has said (871, 872) that he intends to hand her 
over to the Senate, and has appealed in vain for some ‘honest’ man 


1To cite a single case (Miiller, 2.-4., p. 109%): “In allen diesen Fallen 
bleiben die Schauspieler auf der Biihne; es handelt sich hier nur um eine Eigen- 
thiimlichkeit der Aristophanischen Komik, der zufolge der Dichter gern das Pub- 
likum in die Handlung des Stiicks hineinzieht.”’ So indeed the poet does, and 
to a much greater degree than Miiller is willing — or is able, with his awkward 
modern contrivance of a stage before a stage —to allow. Miiller cites here the 
passages numbered 15, 16, 20 above. 

2 There is only one real ‘ blackguard’ on the scene, it will be observed, 
namely the False Logic. 

8 But nevertheless resort has been had to metaphor, so difficult is the situation 
in these passages on the assumption of a stage. See G. Hermann ad loc.: “Nam 
ubi omnia plena videt mollium et effeminatorum hominum, perniciem sibi metu- 
ens, ni horum partibus accedat, s¢mz/at se vestem iis transmissurum esse, quo 
expeditior ipse ad eorum gregem perfugere possit.” 


180 John Williams White. 


to come forward and take her incharge. Then he says, “Come here. 
I'll lead you into their midst myself and deposit you among them.” 
This is not the language of a man who remains standing upon a dis- 
tant stage. Trygaeus hereupon makes the actor who plays the part 
of Theoria strip to his σωμάτιον, and describes the ‘ maid’s’ charms 
at length. And then, “Good Prytanes receive Theoria. See how 
eagerly the Prytanis took her from me!” Again the natural inference 
is that the ‘ girl,’ amidst the shouts of the crowd, imposes herself 
upon the Prytanis, as if he really were eager to receive her, and 
presently, as in the Clouds, disappears from view. The actors and 
chorus immediately turn to other ‘ business.’ If it is said that the 
scene is too broad even for the comic stage, a strikingly parallel 
scene may be cited. At the end of the Acharnians Dicaeopolis is 
undoubtedly in the orchestra. In his drunken good humour he says, 
ποῦ ᾽στιν ὃ βασιλεύς ; ἀπόδοτέ μοι τὸν ἀσκόν (1224, 1225), that is, 
veddite ut debitum, where ἀπόδοτε makes it clear that the ἄσκός is not 
yet in his possession, and that the command cannot be addressed to 
his attendants as such. Presently he receives the ἀσκός, for the 
chorus say (1230), χώρει λαβὼν τὸν ἀσκόν. It came into his hands 
in some manner that involved, doubtless to his confusion and to the 
amusement of the crowd, the ἄρχων βασιλεύς, who as director of the 
Lenaean festival would be prominent in the theatre.’ It is danger- 
ous to say what sort of a scene would be too broad for Attic comedy, 
and prudence may prompt us to inquire whether in scenes like these 
our judgment has not been controlled by our prepossessions. 

In the Peace occurs also the passage where the servant attending 
Trygaeus at the sacrifice is bidden, “‘ Now throw some barley-corns to 
the spectators,” and answers, “I have done it.” He did not throw 
the barley-corns, of course, across the whole space of the orchestra 
intervening between the ‘stage’ and the seats. If it is urged that 
this is a bit of pantomime to introduce the following joke, the 
answer is ready that just this thing was often done in the theatre. 
In the Wasps (58, 59) the poet says, 


1 Here again the possibility of taking the situation literally is denied by the 
commentators. For example, “Adesse ergo fimguntur archon βασιλεὺς appel- 
latus et certaminis potatorii arbitri, a quibus ut victor utrem vini accipit (v. 
1230). Blaydes. 


The ‘Stage’ in Aristophanes. 181 


(to ἃ Χ > + say, iD , 
lV Yap Οὐκ €OT OUTE ΚκΚαρυ EK 0, (dos 
piv yap p ρ 


΄ “ a / 
δούλω διαρριπτοῦντε τοῖς θεωμένοις, 


verses that make it clear that his contemporaries resorted to this 
device in order to win the favour of the crowd, and again in the 


Plutus (797-799), 


οὐ yap πρεπῶδές ἐστι τῷ διδασκάλῳ 
ἰσχάδια καὶ τρωγάλια τοῖς θεωμένοις 


΄, 3s N ΄ Sik 8 ΄ a 
προβαλόντ᾽ ἐπὶ τούτοις εἶτ᾽ ἀναγκάζειν γελᾶν. 


The commentators on the passage in the Frogs are generally 
agreed that the priest addressed was the priest of Dionysus actually 
present in the most conspicuous seat in the theatre.' The reference 
is to the priest also in 308, who is there said to have shown great 
concern for his god! It is clear that Dionysus runs away at 297, 
for Xanthias calls to him presently (301), δεῦρο δεῦρ᾽ ὦ δέσποτα. He 
must have run to the priest on whom he had called. And the scene 
gains immensely in effect if the action is thus interpreted. There 
is not the least difficulty in doing this, except that caused by the 
assumption of a stage. 


21. ΠΛΟΥΤΩΝ. 
φαίνετε τοίνυν ὑμεῖς τούτῳ 

» , 
λαμπάδας ἱεράς, χάμα προπέμπετε 
τοῖσιν τούτου τοῦτον μέλεσιν 


καὶ μολπαῖσιν κελαδοῦντες. 
Ran. 1524-1527. 


Aeschylus, Dionysus, and the chorus leave the theatre together. 


1So Brunck: “ Histrio, qui Bacchum agebat, hunc versum proferens ad Li- 
beri sacerdotem se convertebat, cui ob dignitatis praerogativam in Liberalium 
celebratione sedes erat in theatri loco maxime conspicuo.” Kock: “ Wie sonst, 
zumal in Gefahren, der Priester zu seinem Gotte fleht, so wendet sich hier der Gott 
an seinen Priester, der bei den Festen des Dionysos die Proédrie hat.” Kock 
does not believe Enger’s assumption, that Dionysus actually leaves the stage and 
goes to the priest, but confesses that he is at a loss to explain what really hap- 
pened: “ Allerdings bin ich auch nicht im Stande die Vorgiange auf der Biihne 
wahrend dieses und der folgenden Verse geniigend zu erkliren.”” Merry: “ The 
priest of Dionysus sat in a conspicuous place in the theatre; and Dionysus rushes 
across the stage to get his protection.”” So many others. 


182 John Williams White. 


212: ΠΡΑΞΑΤΌΡΑ. 
καὶ μέντοι σὺ μὲν 
ταύτας κατευτρέπιζε. 
Eccl. 509, 510. 

The women have returned from the assembly. Praxagora and the 
women immediately with her have already freed themselves from the 
gear they had borrowed from their husbands (503). The chorus 
are about to do so, and Praxagora urges haste. ‘Cast aside your 
mantles! Off with your shoes! Fling away your staves!’ And 
then, καὶ μέντοι σὺ μὲν ταύτας κατευτρέπιζε, “and do you put these 
again in order.” Whom is Praxagora addressing? Not the leader 
of the chorus nor any member of the chorus, for their answer is a 
reply to her command that they shall cast aside their trappings, not 
to her direction that these shall be put in order. Their answer (514) 
involves a fixed formula, and is correctly interpreted by Blaydes, 
“ecce humi iacent omnia quae dixisti.” Praxagora must be address- 
ing one of her attendants. Orders are constantly so given in Aris- 
tophanes to servants, the name not being added. Cf. Pax 937, 956, 
960, 961, 1100, 1193, AV. 435, 947, 958, 1309, etc. The attendant, 
in order to obey the command of her mistress, must pass to the spot 
where the chorus have flung aside their mantles, shoes, and staves ; 
that is, she must be in the orchestra. That the actors are here on 
the same level with the chorus, is confirmed by the relation of chorus 
and actors at the beginning of the play. See below, p. 199 f. 


22. Heel Τῖει i. 


Blepyrus, the maid, the dancing girls, and the chorus all leave the 
theatre together. See the discussion of this passage, pp. 168-170. 


24.) Plut 25 ἢ 
Carion has been sent to fetch the chorus (223-228). He and the 
chorus enter the orchestra together at 253, conversing as they come. 
They presently dance, Carion leading off (290 ff.). 


25. ΧΟΡΟΣ. 


A ὯΝ ’ , + σ 
δεῖ yap KQATOTLY TOUTWV ἄδοντας ἕπεσθαι. Plut 1209 


Chremylus, the priest, Plutus, the old woman, and the chorus 
leave the theatre together. 


The ‘Stage’ in Aristophanes. 183 


These, then, are the twenty-five instances where chorus and actors 
(or mutes or a musician) are on the same level. ‘The situation 
occurs at least once in each of the eleven plays. Perhaps the fact of 
a common level for chorus and actors will not be conceded in some 
of the instances. But the number will still remain astonishingly large, 
and many of them are of great importance in the action of the play, 
since frequently the situation is continued and involves many persons. 

It may be affirmed with confidence that nothing in the language 
or course of the action prior or subsequent to these situations proves 
that there has been a change of level. (See p. 173.) There is not even 
an indication of such a change. In the first eleven instances, where 
the chorus come to the actors, it will doubtless at once be granted 
that the entrance of the chorus upon the scene must have been made 
through the parodos. If we still maintain that there was a stage, we 
are then forced in all of the instances to believe that Aristophanes, 
who motives introits and exits with such care, allowed these changes 
of level to occur without intimation. And this will be urged by those 
who still believe that in five cases he has been careful to indicate the 
ascent or descent of the actor in a similar situation. 

It is of great importance to observe that the argument holds, even 
if we abandon the Vitruvian stage, and reduce the height of the stage, 
as Mr. Haigh has suggested, to six or seven feet. The argument holds 
against amy stage that demands a stairway. The only stage that would 
not give serious offence would be one raised only a single step above 
the level of the orchestra. And this would be a reductio ad—nthil / 


Il. Argument from the Close of the Plays. 


It is noteworthy that many of the situations just cited occur at the 
close of the play.’ In all but three of the plays the chorus and 
actors go off together.?, These three are the Knights, the Clouds, 


1 For the Acharnians, see p. 177; Wasps, p. 177; Peace, p. 178; Birds, p. 178; 
Lysistrata, pp. 176 and 186f.; Frogs, p. 181; Ecclesiazusae, p. 182; Plutus, p. 182. 

2 And yet Mr. Haigh says (4. 7. p. 178) that instances where the actors made 
their exit by the orchestra are only rarely to be met with. In the eight cases 
just cited the evidence that the actors did make their exit through the orchestra 
is certain. If Mr. Haigh is referring to the exits of single actors in the course of 
the play, he is begging the question, so far as proof that can be adduced from the 
plays themselves is concerned. What is the proof that these exits did not occur 
through the parodoi? 


184 John Williams White. 


and the Thesmophoriazusae. The Knights must be dismissed from 
consideration, for as Dindorf pointed out, and as is now universally 
agreed, the close of this play is defective. Verses of the chorus 
have here been lost. ‘These lost verses may have contained a direc- 
tion similar to that in Plut. 1208, 1209, which would have deter- 
mined the action that closed the play. In the other two plays 
mentioned, the situation demands that the exit of the actors shall be 
hurried." 

In the Acharnians, Dicaeopolis retires at the right at the head of a 
triumphal procession. The chorus have been completely won over, 
and he has thoroughly routed the enemies of peace. The Peace and 
the Birds end with the hymenaeus, with splendid spectacular effect. 
In the Wasps, the poet introduces what he himself tells us is a new 
device. (The date of the play is 422 B.c.) 


«« Come, dancing as you are, if you like it, lead away, 
For never yet, I warrant, has an actor till to-day 
Led out a chorus, dancing, at the ending of the play.” ? 


The invention apparently pleased both poet and people, for three 
later plays end in a similar manner,—the Peace, the Birds, and 
the Ecclesiazusae. The grouping of actors, Athenian semichorus, 
and Athenian chorus at the close of the Lysistrata must have been 
effective. The same general effect must have. been produced by 
the processional close of the Frogs and the Plutus. 

The fact that the comedies of Aristophanes so generally close in 
this manner is surely not without significance. It makes the suppo- 
sition of a stage extremely difficult. In the Frogs, in particular, 
while there is throughout the play the distinctest apparent separation 
of chorus and actors, for reasons given elsewhere,* yet at the close 


1JIn the Clouds, Strepsiades and Xanthias are escaping from the burning 
house. See Schdnborn, p. 351: “Strepsiades verschwindet von dem Dache des 
brennenden Hauses aus mit seinen Dienern hinter den Coulissen zur linken.” 
Beer’s suggestion that 1508, 1509 belong to the chorus has much to commend it. 
See Kaehler’s note. In the Thesmophoriazusae, the policeman disappears on the 
run in pursuit of “ Artamuxia.’ Cf. 1225, 1226. 

2'Vesp. 1535-1537, from Mr. Rogers’s translation of the play. The codices 
read ὀρχούμενος in 1537. The passage is quoted on p. 177. 

3 See p. 205. 

4 See p. 199. 


The ‘Stage’ in Aristophanes. 185 


of the play chorus and actors unite in the most natural manner. The 
inference in this play, as in the others, is that *here was no bar to 
their doing this. 


Ill. Argument from Impossible Situations. 


In two scenes in the Lysistrata, on the theory of a stage, a chorus 
of twenty-four persons must have executed a dance-movement upon 
it. But this would have been impossible on a stage so shallow as 
that assumed. 

1. The semichorus of old men are certainly in front of the main 
scene at 306-318 ; that is, they are on the stage, if there is a stage. 
They have executed the four introductory lyric numbers in the 
orchestra. At 306 they turn to the accomplishment of the purpose 
which has brought them to the Acropolis. There is no intimation 
that they make an ‘ascent.’' They lay down their burdens (307, 
314), dip the vine-torch in the pot (308, 316), and threaten to butt 
like battering-rams at the gates of the Acropolis (309), and, if Lysis- 
trata and those with her refuse to obey the summons and undo the 
bars, to burn the very gates with fire and smoke the women out 
(311, €f.:267-270). 

The semichorus of women enter (with a double lyric number, it 
should be observed) on the level occupied by the old men at 306- 
318. While there is no intimation at any point that the women have 
made an ‘ascent,’ there is clear evidence in the dialogue which be- 
gins at 350 that men and women are on a common level. The old 
fellows threaten to break their sticks on the women’s backs (357) 
and to slap their faces (360 f., cf. 362). The dialogue is spirited, 
and the language implies the possibility of personal contact:? ἢν 
προσφέρῃ τὴν χεῖρά τις (359) ; θενών (364) ; ἅπτου τῷ δακτύλῳ (365) ; 
ἣν σποδῶ τοῖς κονδύλοις (366) ; εἰ τῇδ᾽ ὡς ἔχω τῇ λαμπάδι σταθεύσω 
(376) ; ἔμπρησον αὐτῆς τὰς κόμας (381). At its close the women 
actually douse the men with the contents of their pitchers.® 


1 See p. 176, note. 

2 What is here threatened is actually done further on in the play. Cf. 635, 
657, 681, 705. 

8 The course of the action shows that the scholiast on 321 is wrong in suppos- 
ing that the women are on the ‘stage,’ the old men below in the orchestra. πέτου, 
métov: Νῦν ἐστιν ἡμιχόριον τὸ λέγον ἐκ γυναικῶν εἰσερχομένων ἄνωθεν, ἵνα καὶ τὸ 


186 Sohn Williams White. 


The chorus of twenty-four, then, are all on the stage, if there is a 
stage, at the moment of the entrance of the Magistrate at 387. Here 
they remain. But at 476 ff. occur a song and a dance of the old men, 
and at 541 ff. the corresponding song and dance of the women. That 
this lyric strophe and antistrophe were accompanied by a dance is clear 
from the language in 541, ἔγωγε yap ἂν οὔποτε κάμοιμ᾽ ἂν ὀρχουμένη. 

Here then is an impossible situation, a dance movement executed 
on a shallow ‘stage,’ and that already overcrowded. (See below, 
p- τῶι f.) 

It should be added that no intimation is given in what follows that 
the chorus descend from the ‘stage.’ But the four lyric numbers 
which begin at 614 are clearly orchestic. 

2. An impossible situation, similar to the above but even more 
convincing, occurs at the close of the play. 

Athenians and Laconians have yielded to the women (1178 ff.). 
Lysistrata nas conducted the men within the gates of the Acropolis, 
where they have feasted and given one another pledges. Each man 
is to take his wife and hie away homeward (1182 ff.). The feasters 
are announced, ὡς ἤδη ye χωροῦσ᾽ ἔνδοθεν (1241), and appear, men 
and women together, as a supplementary chorus of twenty-four, 
consisting of a semichorus of six Laconian men and six Laconian 
women, and another semichorus of six Athenian men and six Athe- 
nian women. Immediately on their appearance through the gates of 
the Acropolis the lyric movement begins (1247). That the songs 
were accompanied by dances is clear. Cf. διποδιάξω (1243), dpxov- 
μένους (1246), ὀρχησάμενοι (1277), πρόσαγε χορόν, ἐπάγαγε χάριτας 
(1279), αἴρεσθ᾽ ἄνω ἰαί (1292), ὦ εἶα κοῦφα πάλλων (1304), ποδοῖν τε 
πάδη (1317). 


In the two situations just described the height of the ‘stage’ is a 
matter of no special importance. The argument rests on its extreme 
shallowness, according to Vitruvius and according to the actual 
remains of proscenia found at Epidaurus, Assos, Oropus, and else- 
where. How extremely shallow it was is worthy of special attention. 


ὕδωρ αὐτῶν καταχέωσιν ἄνωθεν. τὸ δὲ ἄλλο ἡμιχόριον ἐξ ἀνδρῶν κάτωθεν ἐπερχο- 
μένων ταῖς ἐν τῇ ἀκροπόλει εἰς πολιορκίαν. The scholiast’s imagination was caught 
by the dousing scene at 381 ff. He wished to get the effect of height when the 
women soused the men. 


The ‘ Stage’ in Aristophanes. 187 


The ‘stage’ in the theatre at Epidaurus was eight feet deep ; that 
is, this was the distance from the entablature of the proscenium to 
the wall of the main building.’ The later stone proscenium in the 
theatre at Athens, which was probably erected just where the earlier 
temporary wooden proscenium had stood, was no further than this 
from the main building. But there was not actually even this amount 
of space for the movements of the actors. How it was narrowed had 
better be explained in the language of those who believe that the pro- 
scenium was in fact the front wall of the ‘stage’ on which the actors 
stood. Mr. Haigh says: “The upper portion of the painted scene 
represented merely the sky, and was probably the same in all dramas. 
The lower portion was separable from the upper, and on it was de- 
lineated the building or landscape which the particular play required. 
This lower portion of the scene must have stood some small distance 
in front of the upper portion. It is impossible that the whole scene 
should have been in one piece, and have ascended in a straight line 
from the bottom to the top of the stage. If this had been the case, 
there would have been no room for the narrow ledge or platform, 
which Pollux calls the ‘distegia.’” The distegia was a contrivance 
which enabled actors to take their stand upon the roof of a palace 
or private house. ... In the Acharnians, the wife of Dicaeopolis 
views the procession from the roof of the house. At the commence- 
ment of the Wasps Bdelycleon is seen sleeping upon the roof, and 
his father Philocleon tries to escape through the chimney. At the 
end of the Clouds Strepsiades climbs up by a ladder to the roof of 
the phrontisterion, in order to set it on fire. The distegia must also 
have been used in such scenes as that . . . in which Lysistrata and 
Myrrina are seen upon the battlements of the Acropolis.’ It fol- 
lows from these examples that there must have been room enough 
between the top of the palace or other building, and the surface of 
the scene behind it, to allow a narrow ledge or platform to be in- 
serted.... The upper portion [of the scene] must have been 


1 See above, p. 161. 

2 Poll. IV. 129, 130: ἡ δὲ διστεγία ποτὲ μὲν ἐν οἴκῳ βασιλείῳ διῆρες δωμάτιον, 
οἷον ἀφ᾽ οὗ ἐν Φοινίσσαις ἣ ᾿Αντιγόνη βλέπει τὸν στρατόν, ποτὲ δὲ καὶ κέραμος, 
ἀφ᾽ οὗ βάλλουσι τῷ κεράμῳ: ἐν δὲ κωμωδίᾳ ἀπὸ τῆς διστεγίας πορνοβοσκοί τι κα- 
τοπτεύουσιν ἢ γράδια ἢ γύναια καταβλέπει. 


8 Ach. 262, Vesp. 68, 144, Nub. 1485-1503, Lys. 864, 874, 883. 


188 Sohn Williams White. 


affixed to the permanent wall at the back of the stage. ... The 
lower portion . . . would be fastened to a wooden frame a short 
distance in front of the permanent back-wall. There would thus be 
room for the erection of the ledge or distegia between the wooden 
frame and the wall at the back.” So too Miiller, who is more specific 
as to the amount of space taken by this extraordinary contrivance : 
““ Indessen ist es eine sehr ansprechende Vermuthung, dass dieselben 
[die bemalten Vorhange] nicht unmittelbar an der Hinterwand be- 
festigt wurden, was nach Errichtung reich verzierter steinerner Wande 
schon des Statuen- und Saulenschmucks wegen nicht moglich gewesen 
ware, sondern an einem holzernen Rahmenwerke, welches jedenfalls 
so weit von der Hinterwand abstand, dass die Schauspieler zwischen 
dieser und jenem sich bewegen konnten.”’ The distegia, even at 
the narrowest, must have occupied two feet. Even then the position 
of the actor who took his place upon it would have been extremely 
uncomfortable and precarious. If the distegia occupied two feet of 
space, the total depth of the ‘stage’ in the theatres at Epidaurus and 
Athens was six feet. No dance of a chorus of twenty-four was pos- 
sible, of course, on a ‘stage’ of this depth. , 


IV. Argument from the Over-crowded ‘ Stage.’ 


Scenes occur in Aristophanes in which the persons introduced 
are so many in number and the properties brought on are so consid- 
erable in amount that the action could not have been properly man- 
aged on a ‘stage’ only six feet in depth. The following instances, 
selected from many, will serve as illustrations. 

1. Acharnians 1-203. ‘The play opens with a regular meeting of 
the Athenian Assembly on the Pnyx. The chorus do not enter until 
this scene has closed. The following persons are all ‘on’ at the 
same time: Dicaeopolis (1 ff.) ; a herald (43 ff.) ; the prytanes (40, 
56, 167, 173) ; ordinary ecclesiasts (τὴν ἐκκλησίαν, 56) ; Amphitheus 
(45 ff.) ; policemen (54) ; ambassadors (61 ff.) ; Shamartabas (94) ; 
two eunuchs (117). The prytanes and ordinary ecclesiasts sit, and 


1 Haigh, 4. 7., p. 171 ff., Miiller, B.-4., p. 117.— On the theory that actors 
and chorus were on the same level, the ‘roof-scenes’ and the scenes correspond- 
ing to these took place on top of the proscenium. This would give a ‘distegia’ 
eight feet deep. 


The ‘ Stage’ in Aristophanes. 189 


wooden benches are provided (25, 42, 59, 123). It is impossible 
to say how many ‘mutae personae’ were brought on to represent the 
prytanes, ecclesiasts, and policemen, but the indications are that the 
number was considerable. Dicaeopolis speaking of the prytanes 
uses the words aOpo καταρρέοντες (26), a natural indication of what 
is presently to happen; when the prytanes come in they crowd and 
jostle one another in their struggle for a front seat (24, 42); the 
herald’s order is, πάριτ᾽ ἐς τὸ πρόσθεν, πάριτε (43 f.), language which 
suggests the press of a crowd whose numbers make it difficult for 
them to get to their places. 

When Amphitheus, the ambassadors, Shamartabas, and the two 
eunuchs have retired, Theorus (134) and the Odomanti (155) are 
introduced. ‘The latter are spoken of as μαχιμώτατον Θρᾳκῶν ἔθνος 
(153) and as ᾽Οδομαντῶν στρατός (156, cf. 149-152) ; it is said of them 
καταπελτάσονται τὴν Βοιωτίαν ὅλην (160). 

In this part of the scene from thirty to fifty persons must have 
been introduced, and benches must have been provided for half of 
them. It is worthy of note, further, that a row occurs betwen Dicae- 
opolis and the Odomanti (163-168). ΤῸ ‘set’ such a scene as this 
on a ‘stage’ so shallow would be extremely difficult. On the other 
hand, to reduce the number of the prytanes, ecclesiasts, policemen, 
and Odomanti to a handful is without justification. No good reason 
can be given for supposing that the Greeks relinquished the realistic 
effect of numbers in their dramatic representations. ‘The general 
largeness of these representations would suggest the contrary. Our 
undoubted disposition to make the number of the ‘dramatis personae’ 
small results from the necessity which belief in the existence of a 
‘stage’ has imposed. But in some scenes in Aristophanes the num- 
ber of persons introduced is very great and cannot be reduced arbi- 
trarily by any possible device. ‘Two such scenes follow. 

2. Pax 301-728. The scene describes the recovery of Peace from 
the ἄντρον in which she has been buried by War. The chorus are a 
part of the action. The passages which prove that all of the action 
takes place on the same level, contrary to the view of some of the 
commentators, are quoted on p. 174. 

The following are participants: Trygaeus (309 ff.) ; Hermes 
(362 ff.) ; the chorus of twenty-four Attic farmers'(301 ff.) ; repre- 
sentatives of other Greek states who come in with the chorus and 


190 John Willams White. 


assist in the recovery of Peace, as Boeotians (466), Argives (475, 
493), Laconians (478), Megarians (481, 500). These all actively 
assist in hauling Peace from the ἄντρον (cf. page 175, note). Fur- 
ther, when the great wooden statue is brought to light, two ‘mutae 
personae’ appear with it, Theoria and Opora. 

The list of dramatis personae is lacking in R, but is found in V. 
The chorus are there designated as Χορὸς γεωργῶν ᾿Αθμονέων (cf. 190.) 
That they are farmers can be proved on the internal evidence fur- 
nished by the play. They are so called in 508, 511, 589, 603. That 
the Boeotians, Argives, Laconians, and Megarians who take part in 
the action are not members of the chorus is equally clear. When 
Trygaeus invokes help (296-298), he calls upon others besides 
farmers : 

ἀλλ᾽ ὦ γεωργοὶ κἄμποροι Kal τέκτονες 
καὶ δημιουργοὶ καὶ μέτοικοι καὶ ἕένοι 


\ a mS) LS 54 , ΄ 
καὶ νησιῶται, δεῦρ᾽ ἴτ᾽ ὦ πάντες λεῴ. 


Further on, workers in wood and smiths are specially named (479, 
480). When the chorus enter, accompanied by the representatives 
of other nationalities, their exhortation is ὦ Πανέλληνες βοηθήσωμεν 
(302). These supplementary persons are finally excluded from the 
action, and the chorus of farmers alone pull on the ropes and bring 
the statue into view (508, 511). The supplementary persons are 
referred to in 538 ff., where the reference cannot be to the specta- 
tors, as verses 543 ff. prove. Finally the reference in 730 is pretty 
certainly to these ‘ followers’ of the chorus, who at this point, when 
the parabasis is about to begin, take the implements (σκεύη, 729) 
and withdraw.' 

That so great a number of persons could have been thus vigorously 
engaged on a ‘stage’ only six feet in depth is not conceivable. Pro- 
vision, further, would have to be made for the stones that before the 
action began were heaped over the ἄντρον (225, 361, 427), for the 
statue of Peace, which was so colossal that it provoked the ridicule 


1 So Richter on 731: “τοῖς ἀκολούθοις. Sunt παραχορηγήματα κωφά, quae una 
cum choro prodierant a Trygaeo conclamata. Quorum numerus non definitus ac 
certus videtur fuisse, Sed quot choreutas tot quasi mapayopevras fuisse verisimile 
Sia 


The ‘Stage’ in Aristophanes. 191 


of the poet’s contemporaries,’ and for the tools and ropes (299, 307, 
426, 437, 458, 552, 566 f., 729). 

It is instructive to see how self-imposed conditions have been 
ignored by the commentators and writers on scenic action in dealing 
with this scene. These conditions are a ‘stage’ six feet in depth and 
a ‘distegia’ two feet in depth.2 Mr. Green places Trygaeus and 
Hermes on “the upper balcony, or pluteum” (the ‘distegia’). Here 
the action is carried on till verse 728, when Trygaeus descends by a 
back staircase. Here too is the mouth of the cave, and here the 
goddess Peace (“a colossal image”) and Opora and Theoria appear. 
The chorus, however, mount no higher than the ‘stage.’ From this 
they throw ropes up to Trygaeus and Hermes, who attach them to 
the image in the cave, pass them over pulleys, and let down the ends 
to the chorus. This is practically the view also of Schoénborn, but he 
notes that the command of Hermes in 426, 427, ἀλλὰ ταῖς dats εἰσι- 
ὄντες ὡς τάχιστα τοὺς λίθους ἀφέλκετε, really means that the chorus are 
to ascend to the upper level above the ‘ stage,’ entering (εἰσιόντες) the 
main scene and so coming aloft. They get as far as the stage, where 
they are stopped by Trygaeus, and there they remain. Kanngiesser ac- 
tually brings the chorus upon the διστεγία and has them dance there ! 

3. Lysistrata 387-613. ‘The scene relates the contest of the Mag- 
istrate and his policemen with Lysistrata and her attendant women. 
It introduces : the chorus ; the magistrate (387 ff.) ; policemen (424- 
430, 433 £,437f,441 f, 445, 449, 451,455,462); Lysistrata (430 ff.) ; 
the First Woman (439 f.); the Second Woman (443 f.); the Third 
Woman (447 f.) ; a crowd of women from the Acropolis (456 ff.). 

The proof that the chorus are on the ‘stage’ at this point is 
given on p. 185 f. The services of four different policemen are 
called into requisition, but the number of policemen present was 
probably greater.2 These four struggle with individual women. 


1 Scholiast on Plat. Apol. 19 c: κωμωδεῖται δέ, ὅτι καὶ τὸ τῆς εἰρήνης κολοσ- 
σικὸν ἐξῆρεν ἄγαλμα. Εὔπολις Αὐτολύκῳ, Πλάτων Νίκαις. 

ZEEE Ploy ie 

3 The words ἐπιλέλοιφ᾽ ὁ τοξότης in 449 probably mean “ My peeler has the 
worst of it” (meaning the one last engaged), not “1 have no more policemen 
left,” as Dobree and Dindorf think. Why Lysistrata says τέτταρες λόχοι in 453 
is explained by the scholiast: τοῦτο δέ φησιν ὅτι καὶ παρὰ Λακεδαιμονίοις τέσσαρες 
ὑπάρχουσι λόχοι, οἷς κέχρηται ὃ βασιλεύς. 


192 John Williams White. 


When they are worsted, the magistrate rallies his whole squad 
against Lysistrata and the three other women, ὁμόσε χωρῶμεν αὐταῖς 
ὦ SxvOa ξυνταξάμενοι (451 f.). Overcome by numbers, Lysistrata 
calls, not on the semichorus of women, but on the women within the 
Acropolis for help, and these come rushing forth (456 ff.) : 


‘Forth to the fray, dear sisters, bold allies! 
O egg-and-seed-and-potherb-market-girls, 
O garlic-selling-barmaid-baking-girls, 
Charge to the rescue, smack and whack, and thwack them, 
Slang them, I say: show them what jades ye be. 
Fall back! retire! forbear to strip the slain.” ? 


This is lively action for so narrow a ‘stage,’ with a great number of 
persons ‘on.’ It is difficult, further, to see how the injunction ἐπανα- 
χωρεῖτε (461) could have been an appropriate order on such a ‘stage.’ 


V. Argument from Probability. 


1. The chorus in comedy frequently engage in dialogue with the 
actors in a very familiar manner. When these scenes are continued 
to any length, the situation is intolerably awkward, on the supposition 
that the chorus are in the orchestra and the actors above the prosce- 
nium. The chorus would be in the position of a person calling out 
to another at a second-story window.? Comparison in the following 
typical scenes of the actual situation as conceived by Aristophanes 
with the situation imposed by the Vitruvian stage will show the im- 
probability that the poet was writing to meet the conditions imposed 
by such a stage. In the Acharnians, in a long scene (280-392) in 
which the dialogue is exclusively between one actor and the chorus, 
the chorus come out of hiding, catch Dicaeopolis before his house, 
and are about to stone him to death. The chorus threaten and then 
plead, Dicaeopolis pleads and then threatens. Cf. further the lan- 


1 From Mr. Rogers’s translation of the play. 

2“Denn da, wie Vitruv lehrt und das Theater zu Epidaurus bestiatigt, das 
Logeion sich iiber die Orchestra um Io bis 12 Fuss erhob, so wiirde bei der An- 
nahme, dass der Chor auf dem ebenen Boden der Orchestra stand, zunachst die 
Ungereimtheit entstehen, dass der Chor nur etwa bis zur halben Hohe des Lo- 
geions hinangeragt und bei seinem Gesprichen mit den Schauspielern wie aus 
einem Keller zu diesen hinauf gesprochen hatte.” Miiller, B.-4., p. 128. Miil- 
ler is here arguing for the supplementary stage for the chorus. See p. 160. 


Lhe ‘Stage’ in Aristophanes. 193 


guage in 291, δύνασαι πρὸς ἔμ᾽ ἀποβλέπειν. In the Wasps (316-394) 
Philocleon is at the window of the house, and concerts with the 
chorus a plan of escape.’ In the Peace (301-361) Trygaeus pleads 
earnestly with the chorus to keep quiet. In the Birds (801-850) Pei- 
thetaerus, Euelpides, and the chorus arrange their plans in the most 
friendly and intimate manner.’ In the Knights (1111-1150) Demus 
and the chorus sing to one another. It seems improbable in scenes 
such as these that the barrier of a high stage separated chorus from 
actors. What was probably the actual situation is illustrated in the 
Plutus (253-321), where Carion and the chorus are in the orchestra 
together, whether there was a stage or not. 

2. There is great difference of opinion as to the extent to which 
the device for exposing an interior, called the ἐκκύκλημα, was actually 
employed in the Greek dramas now extant.® 

Haigh describes the eccyclema as follows : “It was a small wooden 
platform, rolling upon wheels, and was kept inside the stage-buildings. 


1 Assuming the house to have been of one story (the fact generally for Athe- 
nian houses in Aristophanes’s time), Philocleon is still twenty feet above the floor 
of the orchestra, if there was a ‘stage.’ From this altitude, he begins to warble 
his plaintive strain to the chorus! It is improbable, moreover, that the son 
could have been seen by the chorus from the place where they stood in the 
orchestra; but still the old man points him out to them, using the deictic οὑτοσί 
(337). Cf. Thes. 1171, where the chorus, in conversation with Euripides, point 
to the policeman who lies asleep in front of the main scene. Cf. also Vesp. 
1208 ff., where Philocleon reclines; Eq. 1214 ff., where the chests are examined; 
and Ach. 989, where the feathers are thrown out of doors. It is doubtful in these 
cases and in Eq. 98 whether even the first rows of the spectators would have had 
an adequate view of what was going on. With the use of the pronoun men- 
tioned above cf. Ach. 607-614 (note τωνδί), where Dicaeopolis addresses mem- 
bers of the chorus in a confidential manner.— The use of the word παρίστημι 
also in two places in Aristophanes, in application to the chorus, is worthy of note, 
τοὺς δ᾽ αὖ χορευτὰς ἠλιθίους παρεστάναι (Ach. 443), and ὑμεῖς θ᾽ ὅσαι παρέστατ᾽ 
ἐπὶ ταῖσιν θύραις (Eccl. 1114). It seems highly improbable that language like 
this could have been used of persons standing ten or twelve feet lower than the 
speaker. 

2 See p. 199, note I. 

3 See Miiller, B.-4., pp. 142-148, with the notes, where full references are 
given both to ancient and modern authorities. Neckel (Das Ekkyklema, Fried- 
land, 1890) denies its use by Aeschylus and Sophocles. In comedy, he says, it 
was used only for purposes of parody. Neckel represents the extreme conserva- 
tive view as against Ὁ, Miller, Albert Miiller, and many others. 


194 John Williams White. 


When it was required to be used, one of the doors in the background 
was thrown open, and it was rolled forward on to the stage. Upon 
it was arranged a group of figures, representing in a sort of tableau 
the deed or occurrence which had just taken place inside the build- 
ing.’ So practically Miiller and Oehmichen, who add that, although 
the eccyclema was narrow, since its width was determined by the 
breadth of the door through which it was rolled out, it was still so 
long that its surface furnished sufficient sitting accommodation, in 
the Eumenides, for the entire chorus, with Orestes in their midst. 
If the Eumenides was brought out on the narrow Vitruvian stage, 
the use of the eccyclema in the scene mentioned must have involved 
the choreutae and the actor who played the part of Orestes in grave 
danger to life and limb.” 

That the eccyclema was a part of the machinery of the theatre 
in the time of Aristophanes is not a matter of doubt. Its use is 
announced in two scenes, and is referred to unequivocally in a third, 
and it must have been brought into requisition in other scenes where 
interiors had to be presented. We may dismiss from consideration 
the instances where it has been thought by learned men that resort 
must have been had to it, but in which its use may fairly be regarded 
as doubtful. The following remain. 

In the Acharnians, when Dicaeopolis is about to plead his cause 
before the chorus, he desires to present himself to them clad in the 
dress of the true Euripidean hero. Euripides’s valet refuses to call 
his master out of doors. Dicaeopolis, standing before the house, 
himself invokes the poet to come forth. The answer is: 


ΕΥ̓ΡΙΠΙΔΗΣ. 
ἀλλ᾽ οὐ σχολή. 
ΔΙΚΑΙΟΠΟΛΙΣ. 
ἀλλ᾽ ἐκκυκλήθητ᾽. 


1 Haigh, 4. 7., p. 186; Miiller, B.-A., p. 1464; Oehmichen, Biihnenwesen, 
Pp. 243. 

2 See Dérpfeld in Berliner Philol. Woch., 29 Nov. 1890, p. 1537. 

8 Nub. in init. (see Schénborn, p. 345, and Niejahr, Quaestiones Arist. Scaen., 
Ρ. 37); Nub. 184 (see the scholiast and O. Miller, A7Zeine Schriften, I. p. 538); 
Eq. 1249 (see O. Miiller, XZ. Sch., I. p. 537, and Schénborn, p. 316, note); Eq. 
1326 (see Niejahr, p. 32); Vesp. in init. (see Schénborn, p. 325); Thes. 277 
(see the scholiast). 


The ‘Stage’ in Aristophanes. 195 


ΕΥ̓ΡΙΠΙΔΗΣ. 


ἀλλ᾽ ἀδύνατον. 


AIKAIONOAIS. 
ἀλλ᾽ ὅμως. 
ΕΥ̓ΡΙΠΙΔΗΣ. 
ἀλλ᾽ ἐκκυκλήσομαι " καταβαίνειν δ᾽ οὐ σχολή. 
Ach. 407-409. 


Euripides appears, of course, by means of the eccyclema,! seated on 
some sort of an elevation. He has about him, in great amount, the 
paraphernalia of his art, τὰ ῥάκι᾽ ἐκ τραγῳδίας, ἐσθῆτ᾽ ἐλεεινήν (412, 
413). On the platform by him is the ragged dress οἵ Oeneus, of 
Phoenix, of Philoctetes, of Bellerophon, of Telephus, of Thyestes, of 
Ino. He bestows upon Dicaeopolis from his store the dress of Tele- 
phus, his cap, a staff, basket, cup, potlet, and stale garden stuff. The 
scene ends with the indignant command of the poet (479), 


ἀνὴρ ὑβρίζει " κλῇε πηκτὰ δωμάτων, 


when the eccyclema is rolled in and the door is closed. 

A similar scene occurs in the Thesmophoriazusae 95-265, where 
the significance of the words οὑκκυκλούμενος (96), εἴσω τις... μ᾽ ἐσκυ- 
κλησάτω (265) is certain. The effeminate Agathon has about him 
on the platform a great amount of properties ; on it is a couch (261) 
and behind it is sufficient free space to permit an attendant to enter 
the house (see 238). 

In these two scenes the use of terms makes it certain that the 
eccyclema was brought into requisition.2 Its use is equally certain 
in the kitchen-scene near the close of the Acharnians (1003-1096). 
The main scene represents the house of Dicaeopolis at the centre, 
that of Euripides on the one side of this, and that of Lamachus on 
the other. The entire space is thus occupied. The kitchen-scene 
represents an interior in the house of Dicaeopolis. When the scene 
closes, his order is (1096), σύγκλῃε, καὶ δεῖπνόν τις ἐνσκευαζέτω. His 
dinner-box is then packed owfstde of the house. The scene intro- 
duces on the platform Dicaeopolis as chef, and servants, both men 
and women (1003). They braize and roast meats (1005) and weave 


1 See the scholiast on 408. 
2 See also the metaphorical reference to the eccyclema in Vesp. 1475. 


196 John Willhiams White. 


chaplets (1006). ‘There are, of course, braziers (1014). The scene 
is full of life and movement.’ 

It is noteworthy that in no one of these three scenes an orchestic 
movement occurs. All the space needed for the eccyclema on the 
floor of the orchestra is at the command of the playwright. It is 
certainly more probable that the machine was rolled out on the floor 
of the orchestra than on the narrow space which the roof of the 
proscenium would have afforded. 

3. Passages occur in Aristophanes in which the distribution of the 
parts and the action are in great confusion in the texts, but which 
are immediately free of difficulties if we assume that there was no 
stage and that the chorus had easy access to the main scene. A 
typical case is Lys. 1216 ff. 

On the assumption of a stage, it is impossible to say in this passage 
to whom ὑμεῖς in 1217 refers. To the “spectatores,” Blaydes says. 
But the question addressed to them is, τί κάθησθε; μῶν ἐγὼ τῇ Aap- 
πάδι ὑμᾶς Kataxavow; Bergler says: “Servus, qui est janitor, quos- 
dam vocat, ut sibi sint adjutores in abigendis iis, qui intrare volunt.” 
Dindorf interprets: ‘ Atheniensis minatur plebeculae, non constat 
quot personis representatae, quam chorus invitaverat, vv. 1209-1215.” 
Blaydes introduces in this closing scene no fewer than five speaking 
persons besides the chorus, two of whom are pure inventions ; Din- 
dorf introduces four. Meineke’s conception of the action, again, 
is altogether different from that of Blaydes, Bergler, or Dindorf. 
The editors need not be cited further. The passage is in great 
confusion. 

All difficulties disappear, if we assume that the main scene opens 
directly upon the orchestra without the intervention of a stage. On 
this supposition, moreover, we need not depart from the tradition of 
the codices in the distribution of the parts. Only two speaking per- 
sons are introduced besides the chorus and Lysistrata, —a servant 
(θεράπων) who precedes the revellers with lighted torch, who has 
verses 1216-1220, 1222-1224, 1239, 1240, and an Athenian who has 
been one of the feasters, who has 1225-1227. The chorus have 
1221, 1228-1238, and 1241. 


1 There are two other kitchen-scenes in Aristophanes, in which also the 
eccyclema was probably brought into use, Pax 1191 ff., Av. 1579 ff. 


The ‘Stage’ in Aristophanes. 197 


The action, then, is as follows. The servant, coming from the 
feast with torch alight, says, inside the door,' to the door-keeper, 
“Open the door! Get out of the way, won’t you?” The door 
opens, and he sees the chorus, who after the completion of their 
lyric number have grouped themselves about the doorway, and says, 
“What are you sitting here for? You wouldn’t like to have me set 
you afire with my torch, eh? Nay, ’tis a vulgar trick, I won’t do 
it. Still if it must be done, to please you”’ (with a nod to the audi- 
ence), “Ill undertake this task as well.’”” The chorus, with comic 
recognition of the situation, answer, “ And we, with you, will under- 
take the task,” that is, they are ready to be made victims, for the 
pleasure of the spectators. ‘The scene continues, in Mr. Rogers’s 
inimitable translation : 


SERVANT. “ Hang you, be off! What are you at? You'll catch it. 
Come, come, begone ; that these Laconians here, 
The banquet ended, may depart in peace. 


(One of the banqueters comes out.) 


ATHENIAN. Well, if I ever saw a feast like this! 
What cheery fellows those Laconians were, 
And we were wondrous witty in our cups. 
Cuorus. Ay, ay, ’tis when we’re sober, we’re so daft. 
Now if the state would take a friend’s advice, 
*Twould make its envoys always all get drunk. 
When we go dry to Sparta, all our aim 
Is just to see what mischief we can do. 
We don’t hear aught they say ; and we infer 
A heap of things they never said at all. 
Then we bring home all sorts of differing tales. 
Vow everything gives pleasure: if a man, 
When he should sing Cleitagora, strike up 
With Telamon’s song, we’d clap him on the back, 
And say ’twas excellent ; ay, and swear it too. 


(The chorus again crowd about the doorway.) 
1 Cf. the entry of Xanthias, Vesp. 835, who is muttering to himself as he 


comes in, and particularly Vesp. 1482 ff., which furnishes a singularly parallel 
case to the one under consideration. 


198 John Williams White. 


SERVANT. Why, bless the fellows, here they come again, 
Crowding along. Be off, you scoundrels, will you? 
CuHorus. By Zeus, we must: the guests are coming out.” 


The chorus hereupon fall back, at each side of the doorway, and the 
two supplementary semichoruses appear, with Lysistrata, preceded 
by their leaders. In precisely the same manner the chorus fall back 
at the close of the Wasps (1516, 1517), to give the dancers space. 

In this and similar passages that interpretation of the action would 
seem to be probable which solves the difficulties of the scenic situation. 


The universal belief in the existence of a stage in the time of 
Aristophanes has introduced grave errors into the text of the poet’s 
plays and into their interpretation. Scholars have been forced to 
assume that the chorus were not an intimate part of the action, and 
have thought of the chorus as a compact body, moving throughout the 
play, with some inevitable exceptions, in stiff military order and with 
that military precision with which they did, doubtless, generally enter 
the orchestra.‘ But almost any one of the plays will furnish scenes 
that contradict both assumptions. 

From the very plot of the play, if we may use this word which has 
special modern connotations in application to the Greek drama, we 
should expect to find the chorus engaging intimately in the action. 
In the Knights they come in with a rush, in answer to an earnest 
appeal for help (242 ff.), to bear aid to Οἰκέτης A and Οἰκέτης B, and 
are throughout the play the relentless and active opponents of the 
Paphlagonian. When Agoracritus leaves to encounter Cleon in the 
Senate, the chorus equip him with their own hands for the fight 
(490 ff.). In the Wasps they actually fight hand to hand with 
Bdelycleon and Xanthias in defence of Philocleon (403 ff.) ; and 
when the truce occurs are made the arbiters (521) in the following 
discussion. In the Peace they are the direct agents by which the 


1 Haigh is very bold (4. 7., p. 268): “Except on rare occasions the dra- 
matic choruses were drawn up in forms of military regularity, both on their 
first entrance, and during the progress of the play. They presented a perfectly 
symmetrical appearance in the orchestra.” Miiller is more cautious (2.-4., p. 
212): “Ueber die Stellungen, welche der Chor nach seiner Ankunft auf der 
Thymele einnahm, sind wir bei dem Mangel eingehender Nachrichten fast ganz 
auf Vermuthungen angewiesen.” 


The ‘Stage’ in Aristophanes. 199 


main purpose of the plot of the play is accomplished, and work 
shoulder to shoulder with Trygaeus and Hermes (427 ff.). Even 
in the Plutus, which was written at a time when the importance 
of the chorus in the drama was beginning to wane, they are sum- 
moned to receive their share in the blessings which Plutus is to 
bestow (223 ff.), and actually make their entrance into the orchestra 
in company with one of the actors (253 ff.). In those plays, more- 
over, where they are at first in opposition to the protagonist, they 
become reconciled and afterwards give him hearty support. So in 
the Acharnians (626 f., 929 ff., 1228, 1230) and in the Birds (627 ff., 
1180 ff., 1330 ff., 1720 [{.).} In_such plays as the Clouds and Frogs 
the chorus are not so intimately connected with the action as in 
other plays, first because the purpose of the play forbade it, and 
secondly because of the peculiar character of the chorus; but the 
interlocutory scenes in each (e.g. Nub. 427 ff., Ran. 431 ff.) clearly 
show how intimate the relation of actors and chorus was felt to be. 
In two of the comedies of Aristophanes the relation of the chorus 
to the actors is strikingly intimate, —they constitute with them mem- 
bers of an assembly. In the Ecclesiazusae, first Praxagora enters, 
then the chorus (30 f.), whose leader speaks here and at 43 ff.,’ then 
Praxagora’s neighbour (35 ff.), then seven other women who are 


1 Even the codices are frequently in error in the ascription of the parts. In 
the scene in the Birds (801 ff.) where the great City in the Air is given a name 
and its guardian god selected, the internal evidence makes it clear that the 
chorus had their part. In this scene the chorus question, Peithetaerus answers, 
Euelpides is foil. Verses 809 (first half), 812, 817 (first half), 820, 826, 827, 
832, belong therefore to the chorus. Koch, with his well-known acumen, saw 
this; Meineke, less clearly. 

Many passages which have caused great perplexity might be cited which 
become easy of interpretation if we reject the theory of a stage. If the theory 
that there was no stage be accepted, the comedies of Aristophanes in particular 
will need careful and thorough-going revision. 

2 The codices do not recognize the presence of the chorus till 285, but then 
only N, it should be observed. R has the lineola and B I are silent. The ascrip- 
tion of the parts in this play in the codices is notoriously uncertain. Of the 
recent editors, Meineke, Bergk, von Velsen, from internal evidence, recognize the 
presence of the chorus at 30. Even Blaydes, who follows A N in giving 30, 31 
to one of the women, quotes with approval (p. 209 of his edition) Dindorf’s sug- 
gestion, who in speaking of the woman to whom 30, 31 are assigned says, “‘ quae 
fortasse chori κορυφαία fuerit.” 


“w 


——, 


200 John Williams White. 


named, then ἕτεραι πολλαὶ πάνυ γυναῖκες (53 f.). They seat themselves 
(57, cf. 130, 144, 152, 169), and Praxagora drills them in the part that 
they are presently to play in the assembly on the Pnyx. ‘They go off 
together, Praxagora and the other women first, the chorus following 
(285) with a quick orchestic movement (289-310). ‘The chorus in 
this scene are in their function undistinguishable from the actors and 
mutes, except at the very close.’ In the Thesmophoriazusae the rela- 
tion of chorus to actors is still more intimate than in the scene just 
mentioned, but still the chorus here better maintain their lyric and 
orchestic function. They constitute, in fact, the meeting, and repre- 
sent the commons to whom the orators address themselves (384, 455, 
466, cf. 533, 540). The orators are the First Woman (Micca, 380, 
760), the Second Woman, who presently retires (458), and Mnesilo- 
chus. Philiste, a friend of Micca, is named (568), and Micca has the 
aid of her slave woman (728, 739, 754). Besides these, the nurse is 
present with the baby (608, 609). How many others were present 
with the speakers (cf. τὰς ἄλλας, 607) is uncertain, but probably the 
number of those introduced in addition to the chorus was small. 
This supposition accords with the economy of the play, since the 
chorus appear prominently as such, and since the meeting is pres- 
ently broken up by the discovery of Mnesilochus and is merged into 
the general action. The presence of a large number of mutes would 
be both unnecessary and disturbing. But this prominence of the 
chorus as central figures in the action makes the intimacy of their 
relation to the actors only the more prominent. When the herald 
proclaims that prayer is to be made to the gods (295, 310), the 
chorus answer (312 ff.) and offer the prayer. (Cf. also 332, 351 with 
352 ff.) When the first speaker is about to begin, the chorus say, 
“Silence, silence! Give attention. She’s clearing her throat, just as 
the orators do. Belike she’ll speak at length” (381 f.). The chorus 
express approval or disapproval of the views of the speakers (434 ἢ, 
459 ff., 520 ff.). When Cleisthenes enters, the chorus take up the 
dialogue in the most familiar manner (582 ff.).? 


1 This is, of course, a scene which could not have been acted on the Vitruvian 
stage (cf. the argument in IV., p. 188 ff.), and it confirms the view advanced on 
p- 182. 

2 The action in this scene of the Thesmophoriazusae was managed as follows. 
The background is the Thesmophorium (278). Euripides, Mnesilochus (dressed 


The ‘Stage’ in Aristophanes. 201 


The chorus, then, were an intimate part of the action. No less 
certain is it that the chorus did not maintain a stiff military formation 
during the entire course of the action of the play. In the first place, 
the instances are not rare in comedy where they certainly broke rank 
and file. Cf. Vesp. 415-462; Pax 458-519, 970-972, and 1305- 
1315; Lys. 306-318 and 1216 ff.; Thes. 730-738; Eccl. 30-284. 
When, further, we remember how intimately they were associated 
with the action of the play, it seems somewhat absurd, especially in 
comedy, to keep them standing bolt-upright and stock-still, in mili- 
tary order, in long scenes where they have no orchestic movement. 
Cf. for example the close of the scene that precedes the parabasis in 
the Knights (409-497, note especially 490 ff.') or a scene that fol- 
lows in the same play (843-972, note especially 9213). Still, when 
we recall the origin of the dramatic chorus, and observe the fre- 
quency of orchestic movements in comedy, we realize that the func- 
tion of the chorus was different from that of the actor. If we follow 
the indications given in the plays, we shall suppose that the chorus 
could break rank and file on occasion in a manner which did not 
seem unnatural to the spectators, and that at other times, when not 
dancing, they were generally grouped in semichoruses on each side 
of the main action. The division of the chorus into semichoruses is 
generally recognized in the Acharnians (557 ff.) and in the Lysi- 
strata (254 ff. and 1247 ff.). Soin R inthe Ecclesiazusae (1263 ff.). 
It is noteworthy that von Velsen, an editor of great critical acumen, 
has divided the chorus into semichoruses also in the Thesmophoria- 
zusae, Frogs, and throughout the Ecclesiazusae.? The supposition 


as a woman), and Thratta appear at the right (277 ff.). Euripides leaves as he 
came (279), Mnesilochus seats himself, in a convenient place, between the wings 
in front of the proscenium (292), and the maid retires (293). The herald, cho- 
rus, and other women enter at the right (295 ff.). The latter also take their 
seats (cf. 384) between the wings, and here they stand when addressing the 
assembly, that is, the chorus, who occupy the orchestra. —This scene also could 
not have been acted on the Vitruvian stage, and it confirms the view advanced 
on p. 177. 

1 This passage is commented on, pp. 173, 174. 

2 This passage is commented on, p. 174. 

8 Von Velsen edited the text of these three plays in 1883, 1881, 1883 respec- 
tively; that of the Knights, in which he does not recognize the semichorus, in 
1869. He edited the text of the Plutus in 1881, but the omission of choruses in 


202 Sohn Willams White. 


suggested above completely meets the objection that if the actors 
played on the same level with the chorus, the chorus obscured them 
from view. Scenes such as Eq. 1151-1262, Vesp. 1122-1264, and 
Ran. 830 ff. can thus be perfectly managed. Any one who has sat in 
the theatre at Athens and looked down into the great space of the 
orchestra cannot doubt that even the details of the action were 
clearly seen. The performance was in broad daylight and in the 
open air. Dorpfeld, whose careful study of the theatre of Dionysus 
at Athens gives his words great weight, states the facts cogently. 

“Aber der Chor verdeckte die Schauspieler keineswegs: er war 
gewohnlich in zwei Halbchore geteilt, welche sich nicht unmittelbar 
vor den Schauspielern, sondern seitwarts aufstellten; er war nur 
klein im Verhaltniss zu der grossen Flache der Orchestra, auf welcher 
gespielt wurde ; er war durch einfachere Tracht wohl unterschieden 
von dem Schauspieler, welcher durch Kleidung und Kothurn [in 
tragedy | als Hauptperson leicht kenntlich war ; und schliesslich diirfen 
wir nicht vergessen, dass schon die unterste Sitzreihe vielfach etwas 
uber dem Fussboden der Orchestra liegt, und dass die Bewegungen 
der Spielenden, je hoher man sitzt, um so mehr von oben, also im 
Grundriss, gesehen werden. Obwohl in unsern modernen Theatern 
ein grosser Teil des Publikums tiefer sitzt als die Biihne, scheut man 
sich nicht, sehr viele Nebenpersonen auftreten zu lassen, durch welche 
oft genug die Hauptpersonen wenigstens fiir einen Teil der Zuschauer 
verdeckt werden.”’! 


The arguments presented in this paper have been in the main 
negative and destructive. I have endeavoured to show that the com- 
edies of Aristophanes could not have been played on the Vitruvian 
stage. It would be unfortunate to close the discussion without 
leaving a positive impression. ‘The ease with which, on the assump- 
tion that actors and chorus were on a common level and that there 
was not the barrier of a ‘stage’ between them, any comedy can be 
‘set’ is one of the strongest arguments in support of the proposition 
that in the time of Aristophanes the ‘stage’ did not exist. The play 


the Plutus throws it out of the consideration. — Von Velsen was not influenced, 
of course, in his conclusions by the consideration that there was no ‘stage’ in the 
time of Aristophanes. 

1 Berliner Philol. Woch., 12 April, 1890, p. 470. 


The ‘Stage’ in Aristophanes. 203 


that gives the greatest trouble on the old theory is the Lysistrata. I 
shall, therefore, close this paper by indicating in broad outline what 
I conceive the course of the action in this play to have been. 

We have before us the temporary wooden proscenium on which 
the scenery was hung, the big circular orchestra, and the two broad 
parodoi. 

The play falls into two acts. The scene of each is Athens. The 
time is daybreak. 

In the first act, the special scene represents the house of the chief 
person of the play, Lysistrata, at the centre. At the right or left of 
centre is the house of Calonice. 

At the beginning of the play Lysistrata enters from her house, with 
an attendant.’ Calonice enters from her house at 5. Women enter 
at the left” at 65, 66, among whom is Myrrhina. Lampito enters at 
the left at 77 with other Laconian women, and is followed by a young 
woman from Boeotia (85 f.) and a girl from Corinth (go f.).  Lysis- 
trata’s attendant enters her mistress’s house at 199, and returns with 
a cylix and stamnion. Lampito retires at the left alone at 244. At 
253 all the other women troop off at the right to the Acropolis. 

The scene changes. The scene in the second act represents the 
Propylaea of the Acropolis. 

The semichorus of men enter at the right at 254, carrying logs of 
wood and a pot containing fire. Their movements are in the orches- 
tra until 306, when they turn to the main scene between the wings, 
put down their logs, and light their torches. The semichorus of 
women also enter at the right at 319. They too execute a dance, 
and, this concluded, at 350 discover the men, who now return to 
the open space of the orchestra. ‘The two semichoruses face one 
another.* The Magistrate enters at the right at 387 attended by 
policemen. He takes his place at centre with the semichoruses 
grouped in front of him at each side. He is in full view of the spec- 
tators. After the conclusion of his bitter denunciation of the women, 
he sets his men to work with levers on the gates of the Acropolis, 


1 Facetiously called Σκύθαινα at 184. See Brunck’s note. 

2 These entrances (right and left) were probably all made through the paro- 
doi. See p. 171, note 2, and p. 183, note 2. 

8 See p. 176, note. 

4 See p. 185. 


204 John Williams White. 


when they open and Lysistrata appears at 430. The following scene 
is full of movement.!. Three women appear from the Acropolis one 
after the other at 439, 443, 447, to the aid of Lysistrata and of one 
another. When the policemen charge in a body, other women come 
pouring out of the Acropolis (456) and there is a general méie, 
in which, however, the semichoruses take no part. The Magistrate 
and policemen are worsted and fall back. The semichorus of men 
address the Magistrate, the semichorus of women answer, both in 
iambic rhythm, and then the men execute a short orchestic move- 
ment (476-483). The dialogue between Lysistrata and the Magis- 
trate follows. The grouping is effective. At right of centre stand 
Lysistrata and the women, at left of centre the Magistrate and police- 
men. The semichoruses are grouped in front of these at each side 
as interested spectators of the action, of which the audience also 
have a clear view. The dialogue is broken (541-548) by a short 
orchestic movement of the semichorus of women, corresponding to 
the dance of the men mentioned above. Each half of the dialogue 
practically ends with an anapaestic system (531 ff., 598 ff.). During 
the first the Magistrate receives a wimple and instruments for spin- 
ning; during the second he is equipped with the habiliments of 
a corpse. ‘The scene finally ends at 613. The Magistrate and 
policemen retire at the right, Lysistrata and the women within the 
Acropolis. 

The semichoruses bring forward the substitute for the parabasis. 

Lysistrata enters from the Acropolis at 706, followed later by three 
women, who enter respectively at 727, 735, 742.” The four retire 
within the Acropolis at 780. After antistrophic songs by the semi- 
choruses, Lysistrata appears at 829 on the Acropolis wall ; that is, on 
the top of the proscenium. She is immediately joined by Myrrhina 
and other women (830). Cinesias is seen at the same time to be 
approaching at the left below, with a child, and attended. The 
other women retire from view at 844, and a dialogue ensues between 
Lysistrata and Cinesias. Lysistrata leaves the wall at 864, where 
Myrrhina appears at 872. She leaves the wall at 884, and enters 
through the main scene at 889. The attendant goes off with the 


1 See p. 191 f. 
2 Verses 760, 761 should be assigned to the First Woman. 


The ‘ Stage’ in Aristophanes. 205 


child at 908. Myrrhina goes within the Acropolis at 918, 924, 927, 
935, 939, 945, returning immediately after each exit at 920, 925, 
929, 937, 941, 947 respectively. She makes her exit for good at 
951. Cinesias retires at the left at 979. The herald from Sparta 
enters at the left at 980, the Athenian magistrate at the right at 982. 
Each retires as he came in, the magistrate at r1o12, the herald at 
1013. ‘The men and women of the chorus are finally reconciled in 
a humorous scene full of comic action, ending in a joint dance. 
Envoys from Sparta enter at the left at 1073, Athenian ambassadors 
at the right at 1082. Lysistrata enters from the Acropolis at 1107, 
with a ‘muta persona’ who represents Reconciliation. All go within 
the Acropolis at 1188. The united chorus execute a dance which 
repeats the movement of 1043-1072. The servant enters from the 
Acropolis at 1216, and one of the Athenian banqueters at 1225. 
The Laconian and Athenian supplementary semichoruses with Lysis- 
trata appear at 1242. The original chorus is grouped on both sides 
of the entrance. After the dance movements in which each supple- 
mentary semichorus shows its skill, all retire, the Laconians at the 
left, the Athenians at the right. 


1 See p. 196 ff. 


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